Reclaim the Seeds is a festival and gathering dedicated to seed sovereignty and food autonomy, working to make these ideas tangible by strengthening the movement that makes them possible. For over 10 years now, a changing group of dedicated humans have collected their strengths to put together an incredible event centering on the core of all life: seeds. Yet, we feel that therichness of this gathering comes from the many hands, minds, and hearts that join in. Reclaim the Seeds has always been a collective effort in which curious visitors all contributing their knowledge, questions, and enthusiasm. Each year the festival grows in new directions, always shaped by the people and the ideas they bring with them.

We think that reclaiming seeds is not just about agricultural practices, but also an act of resistance in the name of people who eat. The struggle for seed sovereignty is embedded in the wider context of a capitalist food system: All over the world, farmers, indigenous people, and growers are losing their freedom to save their own seeds and have sovereign growing practices. Seed laws, intellectual property rights, patents, and genetically modified organisms transform seeds into a commodity under the control and monopoly of giant agro-corporations. In recent decades, there has been a massive shift towards buying commercial seed annually, despite our long history of breeding, saving, and exchanging local seeds. We are losing local seed & biodiversity, and with it, the health and resilience of our ecosystems and social webs. Seed saving, seed exchange, and seed awareness are political acts of civil disobedience that reclaim control over the right to life.

In light of political and ecological insecurities, we must build robust food systems close to home. We must gather as a community, collectively practice alternatives to industrial agriculture, and grow our movement. This movement encourages communities to meet their basic needs autonomously without relying on distant, vulnerable, exploitative supply chains. We are dreaming of a food system in which eating does not compromise our ecosystem or integrity as a species. 

We invite all participants and visitors to come together and brainstorm methods to create a movement that disrupts oppressive systems and creates sustainable, social, and solidarity-based alternatives, starting with seeds.