California allows seed libraries to freely share noncommercial seeds
Neil Thapar, a food and farm attorney at the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) in Oakland, California who helped launch and draft the bill, explained how seed libraries work. “Seed libraries are essentially community-based initiatives where people can borrow seeds, plant them, and at the end of the season take back some seeds to replenish the seed stock at the library for other people to borrow.” He continues, “There really isn’t any ownership over those seeds. They’re held and stewarded by the library, but they’re shared freely throughout the community.”
According to David King, Chair of the Seed Library of Los Angeles (SLOLA), who advocated for AB 1810 alongside Thapar, the two key aims of all seeds libraries are to increase biodiversity through local seed saving and sharing, and to alleviate food insecurity. “I recall my grandfather saving his own seeds, and I recall those seeds were passed on to other people, to other generations,” says King. “And we’ve lost that. My generation didn’t hand down seeds to their children—we got off the farm, we quit gardening. But now as an older person I see the loss of diversity and I know the only way we can get it back is to grow these seeds, and care for these seeds as much as we would care for our dogs or cats, or even our children. It’s a sacred duty, it’s a sacred trust.”
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