Celebrating Seed Freedom & Agroecology – Jember

JAGA in collaboration with Navdanya and local partners in Indonesia are organizing a series of events called “Celebrating Seed Freedom & Agroecology”. The first city to visit is Jember, East Java. The two days event will take place at Gedung Keluarga Alumni – Jember University.

A group of agriculture students and young farmers called Benih Lokal Berdaulat organizes this event. The local theme of the event is ‘Food sovereignty based on farmers’ self-reliance’. On the first day, with Ms Ruchi Shroff from Navdanya, there will be an open debate involving farmers, academics, government, activists and public regarding seed regulation and seed and food sovereignty. Second day, with Mr Negi of Navdanya, there will a workshop on seed saving and how to set up a community seed bank.

JAGA (Jaringan Agroekologi Indonesia) is a newly agroecology network that was formed in 2015. In October 2017, commemorating World Food Day, JAGA and Navdanya will hold its first joint event in collaboration with local partners. Continuing our movement since 2014 when Dr. Vandana Shiva visited Indonesia and in 2015 where eleven people from Indonesia set out to India to learn about agroecology and organic food system for a month at Earth University, this year we will organize a series of event called Celebrating Seed Freedom & Agroecology.

The seed is among the most sacred gifts of nature, and yet in modern times we have come to take this gift for granted. Nature has provided a tremendous variety of crops to give us all the nutrients we need for a healthy life. As humans developed the technology to manipulate the seed, so too did this diversity begin to diminish. Over the last decades we have lost most of our seed and crop diversity, and this loss directly impacts human health. Moreover, the growing, harvesting, saving and planting of seeds is fundamental in producing food, yet in many area of the world saving and producing seed have become an illegal act as seed has been commodified and monopolized by a few multinational companies and local communities can no longer make nor have ability to produce their own seed.

At this event, we will claim back our seeds. We will have different activities about agroecology and seed, including round table and panel discussions on the challenges facing the food system in Indonesia as well as globally such as seed laws, GMOs and agro-toxics, art performance, movie screening, workshops and many more. We want everyone to understand the complexity of food system and with seed as the the beginning of food system we want people to be aware on the importance of seed sovereignty as it will define the whole food system.

Through this series of events we want to create a strong network on agroecology and seed freedom in Indonesia. This is just the beginning of a long term collaboration between Navdanya and JAGA network to create local agro-ecological solutions on the ground.

The Navdanya team consisting of Mr. Darwan Singh Negi, a National farmer training Co-ordinator and Ms. Ruchi Shroff – Director Navdanya International – who will hold practical training workshops and dialogues with farmers, policy makers and public for a transition towards an agroecological food system for food sovereignty, nutrition, climate resilience and economic security.

We will also work together to create a plan for creating toxic free zones in Indonesia as supporting system to create seed and food sovereignty. A special focus will also be placed on Round-up, the largest used herbicide in the world.

This series of event will be held in the three cities in Jember (October 28th-29th, 2017), Jogjakarta (October 31st, 2017) and Bali (November 4th, 2017)

We welcome everyone to join this event in one the cities. This is an inclusive event, like nature who always welcomes diversity, we welcome everyone who wants to know more about seed, food and agriculture.

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/494045924306412/
More info: https://kitabisa.com/JAGAIndonesia