Heirloom seed proponents now labeled 'agri-terrorists'

[steev]

I'm not entirely sure that it's encouraging that regulatory agencies retroactively amend their initial stupidity; wouldn't it be better if they had the sense to not do the stupid stuff? I wonder what it would be like if people were actually in touch with their "representatives", who were actually representing them, rather than some moneyed special interest.

[prairiegardens]

Utopia. Fountain of Youth. Alchemy. about as likely. Still, better late than not at all.

[jocelyn]

soap box alert

PEI started seed libraries, and were opposed in interest of 'public safety'. Seeds might not be pure to species or even type, terrible 'risk' etc. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed and public libraries now DO provide seed envelopes. Some folks however, say that if the chain of custody of a seed packet is not maintained, it's no longer pure, sigh.

I really can't see how a baggie of seeds from my squashes are less pure if I drop them off at a friend's house who is going to Town anyway.
end soap box

[prairiegardens]

It's interesting to consider how many of those folks who are freaked out about purity own cherished mutts for pets. I've never met anyone with a purebred cat, although such do exist, and relatively minuscule number of people own purebred dogs, (quite a few of them without papers if ads for puppies are to be believed, so in terms of legally, all those are mongrels as well. ) I suspect a lot of the freaking out comes from people having no idea what heirloom, heritage, hybrid, GMO, open pollinated etc. mean so they cling onto something they figure they can be sure of.

Someone on another forum said she was going to try to save seed this year and she was so excited it sounded on a par with going white water rafting in the Himalayas. At least everyone was encouraging! Education is a wonderful thing.

[steev]

So often ignorance isn't bliss, but fear; these days, too often fear of loss of financial gain.

Education is indeed a wonderful thing; it can show you what you might want to do, as well as what you might not need to do. That seems to be why some factions want it carefully controlled and monitored; an informed populace is dangerous, being inherently difficult to rule; when people learn to think, they get ideas, and that can become inconvenient for those "best-suited" to rule.

Lest anyone think I verge on radicalism; yes, I am a Marxist. Groucho lives!

I've owned several "pure-bred" (IMHO) Domestic Short-Haired cats, none papered (that's been the puppies), generally they were sand-boxed, although I prefer my cats "free-range"; keeps us all happier; I never really liked sifting out "almond roca" from the cat-box (Spot loved any opportunity to do so, but she wouldn't do the tootsie-roll-less clumps); I never let her lick my face, sweet loving girl though she was.