You can watch the 4 minute short here: Seeds of Justice
The Guardian Newspaper today released a short taster of our upcoming film, Seeds of Justice. Due for release in Autumn 2014 the film in the last in the Seeds of Freedom Series. It follows the life of Melaku Worede, former head of Ethiopia’s national seed bank, and his work embracing participatory planting and farmer’s scientific knowledge since the 1980s.
Opening the seed bank’s doors to farmers and rural communities, drawing on their knowledge and establishing new partnerships as a means of conservation and preserving diversity, Melaku’s pioneering work is now widely promoted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and other agencies.
Melaku’s recognition of farmers expert knowledge, and his willingness to work with them is the antithesis of the G8’s plans for agriculture in Africa. Encouraging African governments to introduce policy changes around seed, land, tax and trade that favour foreign investors over diverse groups of small farmers, the ‘New Alliance’ has been guided by the interests of giant corporate agribusinesses behind closed doors.
Placing control over seed and large swathes of land in the hands of these corporations, the New Alliance represents a foreign assault on the Food Sovereignty of small African farmers. Couched in terms of investment for agricultural ‘growth’ and poverty alleviation the G8’s initiative amounts to a new wave of colonialism that threatens the cultural and biological diversity that, as our Seeds for Life Report revealed, is so key for agriculture to flourish and adapt to climate change.
Seeds of Justice will explore how different forms of knowledge can meet and flourish in the hands of the small-farmers who produce 70% of the world’s food, creating a resilient future for agriculture around the globe. Investing to expand corporate monopolies on seed, land and legislation in Africa, or elsewhere, has no part to play in this future.
Find out more:
Watch Seeds of Freedom to learn about the corporate monopoly on the food system.
Watch Seeds of Sovereignty to discover the work being done to build seed and food sovereignty on the ground.
Watch the 4 minute Guardian short of Seeds of Justice