Good Food is Everybody's Business
A small group of corporations control the largest portion of the world’s utility patents on plants, and there are big misunderstandings between these players and the public about exactly what these patents cover, and to what extent the bewildering flurry of claims are overreaching rather than legitimate.
Since Frisco could cross sheep guards with gay abandon, climb hog panel gates, jump high fences, and probably leap tall buildings with a singe bound, he left the premises repeatedly! When he went I usually found him in my neighbor’s pasture with the cattle.
I had an excellent group of feeder lambs, and planned to sell them at the end of the month. They were on a lush fenced pasture next to the highway with plenty of forage to last through the month. I did not intend to bring them in until just before the sale. An early morning phone call from a neighbor caused me to change my plans! He was on his way to feed cattle on his parents’ farm, and as he passed our driveway he saw a female coyote, along with one pup, sitting just outside our sheep guard, waiting for the chance to grab a lamb.
On rural Whidbey Island in Washington State’s Puget Sound, fourth generation family farmers, as well as a new breed of greenhorns, are recapturing the island’s farming heritage, creating a fresh food culture supported by diverse crops, seed research, market demand, delivery systems and agritourism.
The theme of the conference reflects part of a global social movement response to the enclosure of the biological heritage of humanity by the biotechnology industry – the “Gene Giants” like Monsanto, Dow, and Syngenta – which seeks to privatize ownership of seeds and make all living things patentable.
For more than 26 years the Whidbey Camano Land Trust has protected Whidbey and Camano Islands’ most important natural habitats, scenic vistas, and working farms and forests by the acquisition of land and conservation easements. The most recent project is the Three Sisters Family Farm.
