Dear Friends.

We are writing from Germany (Panagiotis Sainatoudis and the musical scheme NAMASTE).

We were invited to Nuremberg-Germany by Martin and Barbara Keller for the seed exchange festival they organized in Nuremberg, a parallel event to BIOFACH 2015.

The seed exchange festival started 6 years ago, when there was a lot of movement in Germany regarding the GMO cultivation. What they came to understand was that the answer to GMOs are the traditional varieties. This is how they started the seed exchange festival.

We first met them in April 2014 in Florence when they participated in the 1st International Caravan for Seed Solidarity, which started from the land of Peliti and ended to Kokopelli at the north of France with intermediate stops and corresponding events.

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The warmth we all felt from the first moment prompted our friends to invite us – Peliti and the musical scheme “NAMASTE” participating at the Caravan – to their festival. We accepted their invitation for the seed festival at Nuremberg 2015.
The festival was held in a building at the center of Nuremberg, used for art events.

Cultivators and small seed companies with traditional varieties participated to the festival. There was also a team dealing with urban vegetable gardens and a team that sensitizes and educates students on the importance of protecting traditional seeds.
Hundreds of varieties, tomatoes, potatoes in various colours, beans, corn in various shapes and colours, flower seeds, an apple exhibition etc, is just a part of the whole festival.

The event was enriched from the musical scheme NAMASTE and from speeches on the new european legislation, on the preservation of traditional seeds etc.

The Greek delegation was the first team outside of Germany participating to the festival. We gave our stigma and apart from the greek bean seeds that we shared, we also shared hope and happiness.

General life conditions in Germany are pretty difficult. People are losing many social benefits and fear has overcome many people’s hearts.

Apart from the festival we had the chance to see interesting projects in the province, for example students counteracting with old people from a nursing home through gardening.

Finally, we renewed our appointment for the 15th Panhellenic Seed Exchange of Traditional Varieties in the land of Peliti on April 18, 2015.

Event Report & Photos:

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[English – Englisch] Seed Festival in Nuremberg – Event Report, by open house

[German – Deutsch] Saatgut Festival Nürnberg – Veranstaltungsbericht, von open house

 

 

Related Calendar Event:

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Saatgut Festival Nürnberg

This post is also available in: Greek