LOCAL EMPOWERMENT







FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVING



West of Scotland Vegetable Seed Exchange

The East Kilbride Development trust has now launched a seed exchange, to allow gardeners growing food in the Scotland to develop seed sharing networks. This will enable greater food sovereignty of growing resources and will facilitate the redevelopment of locally adapted strains of vegetables. The ground work for this has been piloted over the last year, to enable the first seed exchange to take place.


This will be held in The Old Parish Church Hall in Glebe Street East Kilbride on the 30th of January 2010. This will run from noon until 3pm.


Here is the poster for the event, please print it out and display it for your local group: Seed Swap Poster


There will be many free packets of open pollinated seeds (many heritage varieties) and seed saving information available.


We will also be looking to recruit seed savers from across Scotland to bolster existing networks in their own areas.


Any groups currently saving vegetable seed, or wishing to start, are welcome to come along and we would hope to be of assistance.


Free courses in organic gardening, soil preparation, basic permaculture, seed saving, basic plant breeding and selection will be available in the coming year. Registration will be available at the seed swap.


The East Kilbride Development Trust forum has been developed where people in the region can swap seeds online, This is a new forum, and hopefully the number of visitors to the seed exchange are will increase as the network is developed.


If you are interested please Contact: seedexchange@ekdevtrust.com

Scottish Seed Exchange

We are currently working to develop a Scottish seed saving network and have contacted the Highland Seed Exchange run by Chris Scratchard, and are in contact with Mike Small's Group on the East Coast (Fife Diet). Hopefully we can expand the network over the coming years.

Why have a Seed Saving Exchange

Vegetable and fruit seed saving and exchanges (seed swaps) are becoming far more common. Non gardeners and many gardeners may be wondering why. The answer in short, is that the genetic diversity of the seeds we use to grow and produce our food is diminishing rapidly under the guardianship of the globalised world corporations. Additionally people want to be sure that the seed they use has not been grown using genetic modification technologies. Some of the following sites explain this in great detail.