# data[].attributes.body
“Carrying on the legacy of our ancestral grandmothers, who braided seeds in their hair before boarding transatlantic slave ships, believing against odds in a future of sovereignty on land.”

Art Dedication for the book Farming While Black

# data[].attributes.body
More from Leah Penniman
"I created this painting to honor our visionary foremothers who braided seeds of prophecy into fertile crowns, as an act of resilience in the face of the most horrifying journey imaginable. I represented the black-eyed pea because it is a sacred food indigenous to Africa that is staple throughout the diaspora and shows up in so many beloved dishes (akra pwa, acaraje, hoppin' john...) and is a symbol of prosperity, blessings, and fertility. Also black-eyes peas are legumes that build soil health, like alchemists taking nitrogen from the air and giving it back to the earth, a method polarized by George Washington Carver, who was born into slavery and overcame unthinkable obstacles to become a pioneering agricultural scientist.

What are the barriers in your life that feel impossible to push past?

What are the oppressions that seem so entrenched in the fabric of our society?

What are the seeds we can smuggle in the face of that, that might find a future on fertile ground?!"

# data[].attributes.body
Biodiversity then and now

# data[].attributes.headline
Infosheet: Selective Breeding and Human Influence in Seeds/Plants

# data[].attributes.subject
Infosheet: Selective Breeding and Human Influence in Seeds/Plants

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SEEDS_ Plant Evolution and Human Influence

# data[].attributes.headline
Extra! Excerpts from June 2019 New York Times by Dan Barber 

# data[].attributes.subject
Extra! Excerpts from June 2019 New York Times by Dan Barber 

# data[].attributes.body
"Just 50 years ago, some 1,000 small and family-owned seed companies were producing and distributing seeds in the United States; by 2009, there were fewer than 100. Today, just four giant companies control more than 60 percent of all the world’s seed sales.

The problem is not that these seed corporations are too big to fail. It’s that they are failing to deliver what growers need to grow and what we want to eat. It’s worth noting that seed oligarchies are a relatively new thing. Seed companies are new.

From the Big Bang of agriculture around 10,000 B.C. until a hundred or so years ago, farmers saved their seeds to plant for the next season. Thousands of varieties evolved across the globe, constantly adapting to their environment and to the preferences of the culture and cuisine.

Organic growing reduces the use of harmful chemicals, improves the soil’s ability to sequester carbon and retain water, and strengthens biodiversity. As the climate grows more severe and unpredictable, we will need seeds adapted to this kind of farming, and to their environments — precisely what a centralized, chemical-driven industry is not built to provide.

These efforts need more than our support; they demand our participation, the same engagement with seeds that humans had for thousands of years. Seeds not as commodities but as a vital part of our cultural commons and as the source of life."

# data[].attributes.body
A document written in 2013 by a gathering of high school leaders from across the nation who grow food, speak up and work on their local food systems sharing their demands for change.

# data[].attributes.body
Read this and then set a timer for 90seconds or more:

Imagine you are a seed. You are young, fresh and strong.

You may not know what you will become one day. A sunflower, a tall redwood.

You are a seed in the dark and warm dirt.

You may not know what you will become but you already have all that you need inside of you.

You begin to feel the warmth from the sun taking the chill out of the soil around you. The rains bring water down to you and quench your thirst.

The soil gets warmer and warmer and you feel stronger and full of energy, you send one root down and slowly you pop a stem up towards the surface to reach the sun.

Feeling the sun on you, you change and grow.

You are a sprout, coming from a seed deep in the ground, and inside of you is the directions, the wisdom, the talent you need to become whatever you will be. An avocado tree, a spicy pepper, a strawberry, aloe, cherry blossom tree.

Feel yourself growing stronger.

What will you offer the world when your flower turns to fruit? Walnuts, blackberry, healing, help, good food, beautiful works of art?

Take a few deep breaths and send gratitude to yourself, your potential and your strength

# data[].attributes.body
Its raw, its easy and you can make it just the way YOU like it.

# data[].attributes.body
What do you feel is happening in this poem?

Why do you think these artists chose to write this poem?

What could be the effect of them sharing this poem with the world?
Comment your answers below.

# data[].attributes.body
Why does it matter that some foods are endangered?
How can this issue be helped?

# data[].attributes.headline
"We have the right to genetic diversity and GMO-free food.

# data[].attributes.subject
"We have the right to genetic diversity and GMO-free food.

# data[].attributes.body
We the youth, call for the Labeling of Genetically Modified seeds, plants, and produce. We demand a policy from the government that labels all GMO’s."

# data[].attributes.body
We believe farmers and all people should have the freedom to save their seed. Any law that prevents

this should be reversed; no law shall ever be made to prevent seed saving."

# data[].attributes.body
Small seed company in philly doing big things! Check out their instagram for seed saving videos and seed stories. Check out their incredible seed collection here.

Watch below for how to save dry seeds

Watch here for pepper seed saving.

Check out this video by Sarvodaya Institute feating Vandana Shiva for more on seed saving.

# data[].attributes.body
An infographic guide to making your own renegade

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Six Healthy Chia Pudding Recipes Everyone Should Know — AndiAnne

# data[].attributes.body
What flavor chia pudding would you like to create?

What toppings or mix-ins would you want to try?

# data[].attributes.body
Mono-cultures/ Mono-Cropping: the commercial agricultural practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same land with the goal of maximum profit extraction.

Biodiversity: the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.

Germination: the budding of a seed after it has been planted in soil and remained dormant for a certain period of time

Propagation: breeding a plant by taking clippings from the parent stock.

Natural Selection:  the process which results in the adaptation of an organism to its environment by means of selectively reproducing changes in its genotype, or genetic constitution

Selective Breeding: the process of breeding for particular characteristics that will be passed on to an offspring

Heirloom seeds: Heirloom vegetables are old-time varieties, open-pollinated instead of hybrid, and saved and handed down through multiple generations of families.

Evolution: the theory of evolution is based on the idea that all species are related and gradually change over time. Evolution relies on there being genetic variation in a population which affects the physical characteristics of an organism. Some of these characteristics may give the individual an advantage over other individuals which they can then pass on to their offspring.

Genetically Modified Organism (GMO): The direct human modification of an organism DNA in a laboratory environment

Hybridization: the process of interbreeding between individuals of different species or genetically divergent individuals from the same species. Offspring produced by hybridization may be fertile, partially fertile, or sterile.

Viable: able to germinate and sprout

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How the Maroon ancestors hid rice grains in their hair

# data[].attributes.body
Do you agree with these demands?

Why do you think youth felt these were important to name?
Comment your answers below.

# data[].attributes.body
A fruit is a suitcase for fruit,  well one full of nutrients. Flowers swell into fruit, sometimes called beans, and dry into seeds.

# data[].attributes.body
animals (poop and fur)🦊

wind (some seeds have little wings or puffs that catch the wind 🌬and make them float)

people (we save them, get them stuck on our socks and we even poop some🌽)

some seeds pop or shoot when their pods dry up and break open

some seeds float on water💧

# data[].attributes.body
Some plants grow from bulbs and many plant grow from cuttings.

# data[].attributes.body
when to plant each seed, depends on your location and the weather where you plant, seed packets will show on the back what time of year to plant a seed

a seed wants to be planted no deeper than 3x its width

water your seed very gently, like rain, you don’t want to flood the soil and wash away your seed

most seeds you want to plant more than one per hole, some baby sprout may not survive and not every seed is viable, meaning not every seed will sprout.

# data[].attributes.body
By True Love Seeds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram's Garden.

# data[].attributes.headline
Presentation: Seed keeping  as a part of living culture

# data[].attributes.subject
Presentation: Seed keeping  as a part of living culture

# data[].attributes.body
Owen Taylor and Amirah Mitchell of Truelove Seeds: Supporting Community Seed Sovereignty.

Video Description - In this workshop, Owen Taylor and Amirah Mitchell focus on seed keeping as part of a living culture. They will emphasize relationship building as central to their work, including how they carefully invest in their relationships with seed growers committed to food justice work, and how they support growers in building deeper relationships with their culturally important plants through seed keeping

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Owen Taylor and Amirah Mitchell of Truelove Seeds: Supporting Community Seed Sovereignty