The Post Heirloom Expo Post
Whew! Time to catch up. Already a week has passed since I arrived in Santa Rosa for my third Heirloom Expo. They switched up a lot of things, and I personally had a bad location for my booth, but all in all it was a great time.
I attended these presentations: “MONOCULTURE-Past and Current Issues, and Genetic Diversity” by Hebron Smith; a part of “The Wild Wisdom of Weeds and the Integrity of Wild Seeds” by Katrina Blair; a part of “Seed Matters Aotearoa & Oceania–Our Farms, Our Food, Our Future!” by Fran Murrell and Claire Bleakey; a part of a panel on Seed Companies and the Seed Industry in America, a part of a panel featuring 3 teen activists in the Food Movement; “SynBio, GMOs 2.O: The Next Generation of Genetic Engineering,” and a panel including Vani Hari (Food Babe) and Gary Ruskin about how food and agrichemical companies promote industry propaganda.
There are always many presentations to choose from, but I spend most of my time behind my table telling people about my books. :) I was very fortunate this year to have both my husband Cy, and my friend Janine, help staff the table, and Janine’s husband, Barry, helping with meals.
I learned new things, was impressed (as always) by the beauty of vegetables, and enjoyed meeting old friends and making new ones.
I hope to expand more in future posts about what I learned, although I’m the first to admit I don’t always get there 0:
Three things right now:
1. After arriving home I found out that the location of the Heirloom Expo is threatened. For some reason the health department in Sonoma County came in and fined dozens of folks for giving away produce and other practices that have been happening for six years. Read more here.
2. As of this morning, Bayer has merged with Monsanto giving this newly formed mega company an even larger control over agricultural products.
3. Although there was an advance screening of the movie, Seed: The Untold Story in town while I was down there, I didn’t get to see it. It is in theatres now, so if you hadn’t heard of it, consider this your FYI and read more about it or watch the trailer here.
And hopefully some day I can announce Seed Savers: Treasure — The Movie
