By Brian Solem, Director of Communications
This past weekend, I joined over 150 other people at 18 different sessions of the 2022 Slow Seed Summit. This virtual space was designed to welcome international conversations about food sovereignty, seed ownership, the impact of colonialism and capitalism on our foodways, and so much more. I am still reflecting on so many new concepts about the relationships that we have, through seeds, to our earth, our ancestors, and each other. Here are nine quotes that keep taking me back to this enriching experience.
What quotes resonated with you from the summit? Comment below!
“Regeneration is mindfulness of the creativity of which we are a part.”
Vandana Shiva, discussing the concept of regeneration
“What will be the quality of the soil that I cannot help but become? … Are we giving the seeds good soil? How we hold the seeds is how we hold ourselves, and each other.”
Katherine Kassouf Cummings, in one of two author readings curated by Dr. John Hausdoerffer of the Center for Humans and Nature
“The more you share the seeds, the more you grow, the more the system grows, the more a community grows.”
Edie Mukiibi, opening the Slow Seed Summit exploring the state of seeds around the globe
“Seeds: that’s where our knowledge, ceremonies, history are. In seeds lies everything that colonizers tried to take away from us.”
Rebecca Webster, highlighting the power of seeds as a connection to pre-colonial roots
“There will be people after us still carrying on this work. I do this work for the next 7 generations. [We must] give our coming-in ancestors a good world to live in.”
Rosebud Bear-Schneider, in a panel discussing seed rematriation to Native American and Indigenous communities
“We are godparents of the seeds.”
Servio Pachar, representing Slow Food Ecuador in a panel discussion of Andean food cultivators
“Seed: That which arises from itself again and again and again.”
Vandana Shiva, in her Sunday keynote address
“Economies of peace start with a seed.”
Ana Prado, discussing seed sovereignty in one of our three South American panel discussions
“We’re all in relationship together, and we’re all in the food system together . . . A strand of hair is very weak, but if we all braid together, then we’re strong.”
Amyrose Foll, discussing regenerative agriculture and the battle against corporate hegemony in our food system
Recordings from the Slow Seed Summit will be available to all Slow Food USA members in June 2022.
