The Seed Savers Exchange response to a few local crackdowns on seed libraries was posted.

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://blog.seedsavers.org/blog/in-defense-of-seed-libraries?utm_source=Seed+Savers+Exchange+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c665b3732f-August2014_local_member_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_530267ed05-c665b3732f-91803442

In Defense of Seed Libraries
August 25, 2014 Seed Savers

Recently, state governments in Pennsylvania and Maryland have intervened to prevent the free distribution of home-saved vegetable seeds through public seed libraries in their states, citing legislation meant to regulate the commercial sale of seeds.

At Seed Savers Exchange, we feel that these actions are misguided and overzealous.

People have been saving and sharing seeds for millennia. Despite what some institutions have suggested, seeds can be valuable, safe and healthy without laboratory germination tests or government licenses.

Since 1975, Seed Savers Exchange has encouraged thousands of gardeners to save and share seeds as amateurs. Together, they have protected agricultural diversity by stewarding tens of thousands of heirloom and open-pollinated seeds that would have otherwise disappeared if left only to license-holding, germination-testing seed companies. (Moon and Stars watermelon and Cherokee Purple tomato are just two that come to mind.)

____________________snip_____________________

much more to read at the link.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Sometimes the government needs to butt out of our business!

THIS is one of those times.

[enough]

2. Apparently this is not our business any more, it's Monsanto's. (nt)

[malaise]

20. +1,000

madness is the only word

[appleannie1]

3. Monsanto is afraid people might grow real food and they might lose a couple bucks.

[mrdmk]

22. You mean real food that taste like real food,

not the $5.00 pork chop that needs $10.00 worth of the latest designer marinade to have some favor?

[appleannie1]

23. Yes, and you would love the tomatoes I grew this year. I get my eggs

from a friend that has chickens too.

[daleanime]

4. K&R....

[mopinko]

5. ha! i have both cherokees and a moon and star melon.

this is insane. just insane.
come get me, assholes.

a special personal thanks to you, nrl. you are my hero.

[zonkers]

11. I grew moon and stars!!!!! Found a ponypack at my

local nursery. What an awesome harvest. twenty pound pumkins, orange and tasty! I heard the variety was developed by Amish.

[WinkyDink]

6. Just a few more months of Gov. Corbett (PA).

[appleannie1]

24. I can't wait. We plan on throwing a party.

[BrotherIvan]

7. Because you can't just grow your own food

You have to pay someone else to do it! Why aren't the republicans mad about this kind of intervention? Oh wait...

[ColesCountyDem]

8. Screw the regulations!

I saved seeds and traded last fall and again this spring, but I've always been a little rebel.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. k&r

[Treant]

10. Bugger that.

I save seeds (I do flowers) every year, and trade them with gardener friends.

We don't have a formal exchange, so it's not covered by the law. We're also not planning on stopping even if the law were to cover it.

[littlemissmartypants]

12. Next there will be no public libraries. eom

[slumcamper]

13. An ignorant and misguided affront to human history.

Perhaps paramount among human actions universally essential to the very foundation of civilization itself was the cultivation, conservation and sharing of seeds, enabling the perpetuation of reliable food sources and permitting the settling of people and establishment of formal societies. Moreover, archaeological excavations of much older paleological sites routinely reveal caches of seeds, testifying to their importance even during the depths of prehistory. More recently, among the most essential possessions of early settlers in the New World, as well as those who later crowded into Conestogas and ventured west: seeds!

When governmental bodies deny people the free and unencumbered opportunity to exchange seeds, they have gone too far. Government can and should do good and great things, but the infliction of such an injury as this--on the very wellspring of our human nature none the less--exceeds oppression; it is the manifestation of tyranny itself.

[ReRe]

14. Ahhhhh..... Seeds!

I can see the FBI breaking into my house and confiscating my vegetable and flower seeds. Over my dead body! I'm as fierce about my seeds as the NRA dudes are about their guns.

I am my own seed exchange. Thanks for the news, NRL.

[Omaha Steve]

15. Was it Cheech or Chong....

That said you can't get busted for seeds in "Up In Smoke"?

K&R.

[SoapBox]

16. Time for some regulation changes!

And start it with, GOTV!

[GoneFishin]

17. I am not active in that area, but I am glad some of you are. This is about Monsanto and money.

If there weren't some industry lobbyists squawking about this it would fall right off the bureaucrats radar.

[Zorra]

18. Recommend nt

[niyad]

19. anybody who thinks this isn't about protecting monsanto rather than public health is delusional,

to be kind.

[emsimon33]

21. K&R