Seeds of Hope

Workmates and I hit the road to Asheville this week for the "Seeds of Hope, Seeds of Resilience: How Biodiversity and Agroecology Address Hunger and Climate Change" seed exchange and lecture.

In celebration of Dr. Vandana Shiva’s visit to Asheville, Bountiful Cities, Sow True Seed, Slow Food Asheville, Organic Growers School, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Appalachian Institute for Mountain Studies, Southern Seed Legacy, UNCA, and the ABFPC Resilience Cluster came together to host a regional seed exchange symposium. It was especially exciting for my co-worker David, who has been managing the learning garden where I work and has become an avid seed collector along the way! For me, it was a thrilling opportunity to meet Dr. Vandana Shiva, a long-admired scholar from the sustainability movement, and learn more about the practices that have sustained both our environment and our food systems for generations.




Although I had heard about seed exchange events before, I had never attended one and wasn’t sure what to expect. However, Dave’s exceptional preparation, paired with Christine’s knack for adding artistic details and keeping everything running smoothly, combined with my impromptu ability to deliver a 5-minute elevator pitch about our work at the institute, created an effortlessly fun and memorable event. Our display table received plenty of compliments! I really enjoyed chatting with people of all ages, gathered around, as we dove into nerdy seed talk with Farmer Dave.

We also had the chance to explore, wandering through some of the trendy pockets of West Asheville and downtown, checking out a couple of vintage shops, and hiking the stunning Craggy Garden Trail along the Blue Ridge Parkway.






It felt good to go on an adventure to support and report on such a nourishing scene of sustainability activists! And...