Both activists and many scientists consider this a coup.

“In the end, it’s not a law that’s ‘against’ anything,” says Antonietta Gutierrez, a biologist at Peru’s National Agrarian University. “This is a law in favour of biosecurity. The idea is that there should be a responsible way of using technology, so that it helps us develop resources – and at the same time, doesn’t destroy what we already have.”

Click here for the full story.

Throughout the book, Elton chronicles individual cases of small-scale organic agriculture successes around the world that manage to preserve biodiversity and sustainability. She relates them to existing scholarly agricultural research.

We recommend adding it to your library or reading list. Thanks to the publisher HarperCollins for allowing us to share our story with this excerpt below.

Author Sarah Elton with Dinesh Shrestha, head of our Nepalese partner Parivartan, together at a recent event in Ottawa.

There’s an area in Nepal between the flatlands that span the border with India and the high Himalayan mountains that is known as the Middle Hills. The principal city is Hetauda. There are few roads in the area, the steep mountain slopes making them almost impossible to construct, and people get around mostly on foot. In the summer, the Middle Hills are a scenic expanse of sloping green, but wet weather and rain make the grade impassable for several months each year, the roads frequently cut off by flash floods and landslides. It is in this part of the country where most Nepalese live.

Nepal is primarily an agricultural community; nearly two-thirds of the more than thirty million people who live there are farmers. In the Middle Hills, people grow corn, rice, and legumes, both to feed themselves and to sell to earn a bit of money. In the dry season, the farmers plant the corn in their fields and then, after harvest when the monsoons arrive and the weather is wet, they plant the rice in the same soil. Yet these people are poor. Even though they grow their own food, on the whole they don’t have food security, and in 2008, the perilous state of their food system became all too evident when the corn crop failed. “There wasn’t a harvest,” said Kate Green, a development worker and the program manager for the Nepalese projects at USC Canada, the country’s oldest humanitarian organization, founded in 1945 as the Unitarian Service Committee. Green has travelled extensively in the region, to support local NGOs that are promoting biodiversity and, in particular, that are working with preserving heritage-seed systems. She visited the Middle Hills in early 2009, several months after the harvest failed. “I remember people saying there was nothing there. There weren’t kernels and the cobs didn’t form all the way.” What happened that year meant disaster for farmers.

In the Middle Hills of Nepal, people have been cultivating rice and corn for centuries. According to Dinesh Shrestha, head of an organization called Parivartan Nepal who has worked in this area for many years, there are hundreds of varieties of corn — red corn, yellow corn, whites, black — and tens of different types of rice. In the 1970s, hybrid corn varieties arrived, promising their higher yields, and people abandoned the traditional corns, as well as the rices. More and more farmers would buy their seeds along with the necessary agricultural inputs, and the old ways of saving, selecting, and trading seeds began to disappear. But the new seeds didn’t bring the prosperity they had hoped for. Rather, the communities faced the same cycle of debt that so many farmers elsewhere were living. “They faced great problems,” explained Shrestha. “The farmers tried suicide because they couldn’t pay their loans.”

When the crop failed at the end of 2008 and into the first months of 2009, thousands of peasants were left with nothing. Angry farmers blocked the roads and blockaded government buildings, demanding compensation for their losses.

Some of them blamed the multinational companies that sell seed in the country. The possibility was raised that their crop failure was somehow related to the collapse of the South African harvest, when GM corn similarly failed to grow kernels around the same time. However, the American and Indian seed manufacturers blamed the unusually cold weather in the region that year. Many people also pointed out that the seed system in Nepal was highly unregulated and bad seed could have easily been brought into the country by middlemen. The government launched an investigation.

No one knows for certain why the crop failed; no one knows what the government’s investigation found, but local media reported that it was inconclusive. Kate Green in Ottawa hypothesizes that it could have been bad seed, possibly an old bag of stock that was no longer viable, or a sterile hybrid, or even a faulty genetically modified product that was brought across the border from India. “By looking at a corn kernel, you cannot tell its provenance,” she explained. “You can’t tell if it’s a hybrid, if it’s a GMO, or if it is a locally adapted heritage variety. Visually, there is no way to tell these things about a seed.” Regardless of the cause of the crop failure, it has led to a change in attitude in the region and beyond. There is now a growing understanding of the importance of maintaining a local, farmer-based seed system to help guard against this kind of crop failure. “Now the farmers are realizing they want to have a strong control of our seed system,” said Shrestha. “If we buy the seeds from outside all the time, we won’t have our own control of our seeds. We’ve convinced our farmers that our seed is more viable in our ecology. Our own seed is more reliable.”

A seed fair, in one of the communities where Parivartan works, is a great way for farmers to exchange traditional seeds and spread biodiversity.

According to Green, “The more farming communities can save their own seeds locally, they are safer and have more security in that system for good production, stable production, and even an increase in production over time in their local environment.” This perspective is spreading. Since the crop failure, the government of Nepal has opened several community-run seed banks, and NGOs continue to lead the way in preserving landraces, running about a hundred seed banks in all. Shrestha’s organization continues to teach the farmers to collect, save, and replant their seeds every year, instead of having to buy them. It is now working with more than ten thousand farmers. But to save the old lines will take work. “Many of our seeds have already disappeared. Our soil is getting worse every year,” Shrestha told me. “But we don’t want to replace our system with the so-called modern agricultural system. We need more technical support, we need support for development. Maybe support in building infrastructure for a seed system so we can improve on our own. But we don’t want to import your seeds.”

Excerpted from Consumed: Food for a Finite Planet by Sarah Elton. 340 pages. $29.99

Healthy and biodiverse soils can prevent crop decease and the need for pesticides.

The secret to her longevity? Georgina observed she’s never bored, and always keeps her mind active. At the age of 96, she visited her ancestral home for the first time, the remote Isle of Lewis, in Scotland. “I needed a bit of an adventure,” she said with a mischievous smile.

This article, by USC’s David Rain, originally appeared in the 2011 issue of our Jottings newsletter.

Georgina Brunette is a vibrant Vancouverite, who’s been supporting USC Canada since 1954! I met her in October 2010, while saying thank you to our loyal donors out West.

We talked about Lotta Hitschmanova‘s pioneering work and how, as Georgina put it, “one person can indeed start something significant.”

A groundbreaker in her own right, Georgina graduated from UBC in 1933 and had a fulfilling career as an adult educator and librarian.

An interest in social justice grew from childhood, influenced by her father, Dr. Norman F. Black, a prominent Vancouver educator and human rights activist, and by her sister Mary Miller, an active USC volunteer at the Unitarian Church.

Georgina appreciates how USC has evolved and is passionate about our Seeds of Survival program.

“It’s an insurance policy that protects farmers’ dignity, and gives them a chance against the challenges brought on by climate change. They must take great pride in finally being recognized for the richness of their seeds and diversity.”

Our work in remote, isolated villages, she insisted, “also appeals to the Scot in me!”

Family traditions have a way of carrying on. Georgina’s niece, Margaret Miller, spent six months volunteering in India with Vandana Shiva, the world-renowned defender of food sovereignty – farmers’ right to grow their own food and control their food production systems.

Georgina Brunette’s life-long commitment to building a more just world is a source of deep inspiration, shared no doubt by the many friends who have come to support USC in more recent decades.

On days when the health of our planet’s landscapes seems especially bleak, their spirit of hope and giving reminds us that our work is more important than ever.

Many thanks to all our USC Champions who have loyally supported us for so many years and decades!

…As well as a few other herbs!

Mother’s Day is this weekend, and we know you’re going to be tempted to do something nice, like buying cut flowers to show how much you care. But wait! Those flowers will only last a week or two. Why not let your gift give and flourish all summer with an herb garden that’s both beautiful and delectable!!

Here’s a quick guide to the four Herbs you need to have in your garden. Check it out for instructions on how to cultivate them.

Just remember not to plant them outdoors too early – or mom might lose her gift to a late frost. Here’s a list of last frosts dates for major cities in Canada. As a quick rule of thumb, holding off until the May 24 week-end is always a good idea, if you can.

Mother Nature network gives us a look at 14 vegetables you’ve probably never heard of.

We’re willing to bet that our USC community has probably tried a few if not most of these, but it’s still a great reminder of the diversity of vegetables that we have available to us.

Check out the slideshow and leave us a comment (or a link!) below if you have your own suggestions for other weird and wonderful veggies we should try.

Several last-minute changes were made to the law following public outcry – mostly to allow home gardeners and small organizations with fewer than 10 employees to save/swap/sell unapproved vegetable seed – but nearly all varieties of heirloom vegetable seeds will be criminalized under the proposed law. This means the act of saving seeds from one generation to the next – a cornerstone of sustainable living – would become a criminal act.

Learn more about the proposed law here and here.

In this newest country in Asia, and one of the poorest, there is a need for local NGOs with a demonstrated capacity to work for positive, transformative change within farming communities.

In the last seven years, with support from USC, the staff of USC Timor Leste has been setting in place the foundation to transform itself into a local Timorese NGO.

They’ve chosen to call themselves RAEBIA, short for Resilient Agriculture and Economy through Biodiversity Action. The acronym also proudly uses the local language. The word “rae” means water, and “bia” means land.

RAEBIA is born of 10 years of action, led by a small dedicated group of Timorese people who carefully built a solid reputation as the only civil society organization in Timor Leste with a focus on agricultural biodiversity. We’re thoroughly delighted to announce that RAEBIA expects to be inaugurated later this year, and will continue with program support from USC Canada.

In the relatively short time since 2005, the Timor Leste program has had major impact in the communities where we work. The landscape within the Laclo River basin has changed from one of barren degraded hills into lush and productive soils. Deforested mountainsides have been replanted with native trees. Farmers have increased their food production and multiplied the number of harvests per year, allowing them to earn an income from agriculture.

Young people have regained interest and enthusiasm for ecological farming. In short RAEBIA is building more resilient and food secure communities.

The success of USC Canada’s program in Timor Leste has also gained the attention of neighbouring communities – farmers who are continually asking USC for support because the USC staff team has successfully established itself as a key actor, even beyond the local level.

At the national level, USC Timor Leste has attracted the attention and support of other international development organizations.

The team has been successful in getting additional funding from external funders, including the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The transformation into an independent national NGO is not only timely, but it will open opportunities for RAEBIA to become much more fully integrated within Timorese civil society and to continue building a country where farming, farmers, and food are at the centre of development policies.

This is the first such gathering since 2007, when a similar meeting resulted in a strategic decision to focus USC Canada’s work on ecological agriculture and our Seeds of Survival program. That decision came in anticipation of a world food crisis that has since unfolded.

The results of our recent meeting confirm our deepened commitment to strengthen and spread our collective efforts in the knowledge that we are part of a growing and strong movement. Although the global food system appears just as flawed and vulnerable as ever, important inroads among grassroots community, farmer, and civil society organizations everywhere have created a worldwide food and sustainable agriculture movement.

The solutions to so many of the interconnected problems of world hunger, inequity, and climate change are related to how we grow our food. Ecological agriculture can not only feed the world, it’s the only way to feed the world. And in the coming months and years, the evidence of this will become increasingly apparent.

The meeting concluded with a weekend of public events. A sold-out Saturday night celebration of Ethiopian food, culture, and music featured our own celebrated Dr. Melaku Worede – founder of Seeds of Survival.

On Sunday evening, a USC Canada sponsored discussion at the Ottawa International Writers Festival brought three authors to the stage with their books and insights into why a growing alternative food and agriculture movement is taking root. Their stories tell of cities, towns and villages across North America and around the world embarking on transformative change.

Many challenges lie ahead. But so does our confidence that, together, we are on a path to a more just and healthy food system for all.

A group shot featuring most of the gathered participants. See more photos of the gathering on our Flickr site.

Writing for the Huffington Post, Samuel Getachew called Melaku “Africa’s true hero.” Obviously we agree with that description! You can read Getachew’s article here to get a better sense of what Dr. Melaku has accomplished during his illustrious career.

In addition, at a more local level, several Ottawa community papers featured Melaku’s work and the fundraising efforts of the Solomon Dawit Foundation – which organized the fundraiser. You can read that article here.

Congratulations, Melaku. You’re a true USC Canada champion!