soybeans

Back in August, we learned of a crack-down in Pennslyvania due to certain activity at the Joseph T. Simpson Library in Mechanicsburg, activity so serious the state dispatched “a high-ranking official and lawyers to a meeting with the library.” Whatever had happened at this otherwise innocent-looking location to warrant such a response?

It seems the Simpson Library was in violation of the Pennsylvania Seed Act of 2004. A member of the Cumberland County Commission, where Mechanicsburg is located, quickly raised her voice and exclaimed, “Agri-terrorism.” Other Commissioners, however, more calmly wondered why the state had taken such interest in the local seed lending library, one among some 340 community libraries across the country at that time which had small seed-sharing programs.

Seeds brought to the library are carefully labeled, placed in small paper or plastic envelopes, then filed, typically using those wooden card catalogs of yesterday. Library patrons check out or “borrow” seeds and take them home to grow in the spring. If the seeds result in a good harvest, gardeners collect some seeds from the plants they’ve grown and replenish the library’s holdings the following fall.

This article aims to highlight stories which show the clash between small farmers and big, usually corporate or state-backed, agriculture. This clash is part of a fight that is occurring across the world, with some governments wanting control of land in order to feed their populations and others, usually in the business world, wanting to turn land into a commodity so they can gain increased profits.

Well over a majority of the world’s contributions to global warming comes from the actions of four industrialized states (United States, Japan, Canada and Australia) and one region (Europe), and those living in those states. The advent of a global climate catastrophe is key to buying land, since 40% of the world’s population may face a “serious drinking water shortage” within the next half-century, unless there is bold and quick action.

However, there are other factors to the fight over land across the world. One of the main battlegrounds is the African continent, where not only are many states dependent on only one resource or cash crop to gain money from exports, but numerous states were forced by the European colonizers to change from subsistence to cash crops, which caused parts of Africa to suffer from drought.

Gardens Of Hope: Can Seed Libraries Be Saved From ALEC?

Attack Of The Land-grabbers: The Race For Land In Africa