BC’s Seedy Community: We Thank You

From February 19th to 21st, we alongside 18 BC Seedy Saturday organizers hosted a Virtual Seedy Saturday Conference. The event garnered almost 450 registrations and involved nearly 100 Seedy collaborators who contributed to the weekend’s success. There were two full days of sessions that included community discussion rooms, two movie screenings, and even a play. The Honourable Lana Popham, Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Fisheries delivered the conference welcome and Indian food sovereignty activist, Dr. Vandana Shiva gave the keynote address.

The conference was an exciting opportunity to bring together seed enthusiasts from across the province in a way not previously experienced in a virtual space. Organizing it was a collective effort to meet the immediate need for online Seedy Saturday event capacity. The conference was never intended to permanently replace independent, small events whose power lies in their ability to foster the exchange of seeds, ideas, and information at the community level. These local events reflect the broader sentiments we hope to inspire across provincial food and seed systems through our BC Seed Security program.

We look forward to learning and swapping seeds safely in our communities when safe to do so. In the words of our keynote speaker, Dr. Shiva, “The reason these seed events are important is that they enable us to not forget that seed is alive to the extent it is exchanged.”

Our sincere thank you to all of our collaborators who worked with us to make this conference a reality. This collective put in hundreds of hours to create a diverse and informative session lineup. The weekend’s successes are a testament to the strength, resilience, and flexibility of the BC seed community.

We look forward to bringing seed enthusiasts from across the province together again, this Fall, for a different type of seed event. The 2021 biennial BC Seed Gathering will encourage the cross-pollination of ideas and build connections to nourish BC’s seed community. Follow our newsletter and social media for more information about this exciting event.