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Awesome. Yeah. So so everybody, Johannes is calling in from Sweden, and it's always really special when you can join us, because he's halfway across the world.
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And what are you? 8 h ahead of Mom? Standard time?
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Yeah. It's 2 in the morning right now.
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Yeah, so it's very special that you're with us.
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And it's very special that everybody's with us.
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It's just always really nice to see somebody from so far away.
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So I'm gonna go ahead and get started. Everybody.
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Hello! Good evening. My name is Francis Crank.
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I'm the host of seed Sts story, where we host conversations to uplift the work of other people and organizations, working in agriculture, sea keeping and activism and working to build solidarity around issues, affecting food growers and seed keepers I have my co-worker
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renee on me offering tech support. Thank you. Chica, and I'm so honored to be in virtual circle tonight with all of you, and Sherry Manning with global seed savers on sharing manning is the founder and the executive director sherry thank you
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so much for taking time to be with us this evening. I'm really excited to begin to the conversation and learn more about your recent experiences in your organization's program.
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So go ahead and jump in. Sherry.
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All right. Well, thanks everybody. It's nice to be here, and, thanks to seeds and common for having me and great that we have folks calling in from all around the world.
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A few of my colleagues in the Philippines were going to join us, but they are not able to anymore.
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So I'm gonna hold down the fork for us.
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I did just wanna start off by doing something that's super important to us.
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The global seat savers, and I know it's equally important to our partners like seeds in common.
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But I'm calling in from Denver, Colorado, tonight.
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I'm in my Home office, which is on the traditional ends of the Cheyenne.
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Interfo people. And there's actually 48 other indigenous peoples that call Colorado home.
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And and for our work in seed, saving for our work around the world, it's super important to root ourselves in land and in the peoples on these lands, and in addition, at global seatsavers our work is primarily focused in the Philippines and we're very very fortunate
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to work with many of the 110 ethnol linguistic indigenous peoples, groups of the Philippines, as well as non-indigenous peoples, and and for us, you know, we really believe and see through our partnerships that seeds are an essential piece of
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indigenous peoples, continued struggle to ensure a regenerative and long-lasting food system for all of us, and so for us, global seatsavers, it's really important to root in those belief systems and to honor those communities that we get to work with and we're really
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fortunate to learn from everyday in the work that we do I am gonna share my screen because I have a few slides, mainly pictures that I wanna share that hopefully, we'll help give you a idea of kind of what's going on with our work in the Philippines and it's always
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just nice to get to see the faces of our farmers and get to do my best to represent them.
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Let's see here.
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So again, you know, really rooting in our origins. Maybe some of you are asking Sherry.
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You don't look Philipino. Why are you working in the Philippines?
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Very fair question to ask, and you know my origins.
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In this work began 17 years ago, when I first went to the Philippines as a Peace Corps Volunteer.
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So that was back when the Peace Corps didn't you didn't really get to pick where you go?
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So I was fresh out of undergrad, wanting to experience the world, learn from the world, spend some time in a new and different place and I always like to say that the Philippines chose me because it has been an incredibly transformational experience to get to work in the Philippines now since 2,000
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and 6, and learned from the amazing Filipino partners and communities and families that I've had the fortunate nature to get to get to know and become acquainted with, and really all of that is rooted in my host.
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Family. So when I was first in the Philippines, from 2,006 to 2,008, as a Peace Corps volunteer, I lived with the lovely coastal family.
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That's pictured here, and this is the matriarch of the family.
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Lola Carmen. She is 80.
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90! Excuse me, 95 years old, I just actually got to visit with her last fall when I was back in the Philippines, and it's really their ancestral land, right battle, and their story of wanting to be an education space for the next generation in the Philippines that has inspired what's
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now, global seed savers and our work is really rooted in the land and in relationship and in people's.
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And so for me. While our work has growing exponentially, we are much more sophisticated and organized and growing organization for me.
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My work is always going to be centered in the wonderful relationships that I began to build 17 years ago.
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When I first went to the Philippines, I'll just give a little bit of a overview of our model, and who we are, and the work that we do.
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I know that Francis has some questions. Maybe, too, but maybe I'll just run through my slides first, and then we can go to questions.
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So again, what started with my host family during my Peace Corps Service, and they're really incredible.
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Land, right battle, to be restored, their indigenous land ride of their land, and then wanting to reopen their farm to the public, to be an education, space and a training center is really what began our organization.
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But now global seat savers has grown into a much more robust international development organization.
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So at global seedsavers, we really root ourselves in the principles of food and seeds.
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Sovereignty, and for us that means helping restore community's connection to their own practices of how to best restore and grow regenerative food systems.
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And so we enter communities via an education program. We teach a curriculum called seed school.
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I know that seeds in common has history with that same program we've adaptted it over the years to the local context, and really try to make it applicable to the Philippine partners that we work with.
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But we bring technical training and education to communities and you know, maybe some of you are asking, or people have asked this in the past.
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Well, aren't Filipino farmers saving seats?
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Aren't the communities that you work with already doing this?
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And and the answer is, some are, but the reality is in the last 30 to 40 years.
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Our agriculture system around the globe and the Philippines is no different, has really become dependent on hybrid and chemically treated seeds.
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And so, while most of our partners have the the knowledge of seed savings in their lineage, many of our partners have moved away from that tradition, and have grown incredibly dependent on buying seeds from what we, like to call chemical supply stores, but from what are typically
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called farm supply Stores, and so something that we take a lot of pride in in our model is we meet communities where they're at bringing this technical training and knowledge, but also acknowledging that they have this knowledge.
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And sometimes they just need that partner to help them reengage with that process and envision it under the new terms that are happening right now.
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So we teach seed school, and then we help communities, conduct scene trials.
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And so it's it's really wonderful to see our farmers who actually most of our farmers are organic practitioners.
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But prior to us coming in they were still growing hybrid or chemically treated seeds, and what we've been able to help them realize is they can produce their own open pollinated seeds and so they're really going back to that practice and then we help communities establish seed libraries.
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And then we also continue that cycle of ongoing farmer education and training programs and I'll get into a little bit more of some of our program specifics as well.
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So in the last since 2015 we've trained over 5,000 farmers and participants across the Philippines in the historical practice of saving seats.
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We currently either manage directly or co-manage succeed libraries in the country, and our seniors, production sites and our seed libraries have this number as a little bit off, but around 200 varieties of seeds, currently and so you know we really believe that a regenerative and vibrant
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food system is rooted in the diversity of the crops that are being produced.
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So we're also working side-by-side with our partner.
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Farmers, ensuring that they're able to grow a wide variety of crops and I'll just share an example.
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One of our partner, farmers, Pastor Andrew. He has 200 m² of land and so, in a Western context, most people would call him a backyard gardener in the Philippines.
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That's considered a farmer, and he has over 30 different varieties of seeds being produced, and he's one of our most prolific seed producers, because he's created a whole ecosystem on his land which is really really a phenomenal to see so these are just some
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of our impacts and stats from 2022.
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It's been really amazing to see what was rooted in my Peace Corps community in the north of the country.
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And to Baghdad grow exponentially over these last years. So just last year, in 2,022, we were able to conduct seed school trainings and 4 partnerships in all these different regions of the Philippines, if you're not familiar with the
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Philippines, it's over 7 islands. It's a very diverse nation.
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So there's there's large, both environmental cultural language differences just a few hours away from the different locations throughout the land, blocked areas as well as on the islands. And so it's all of our work is made possible through partnerships.
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And through organizations and communities reaching out and saying, Hey, we want you to bring your expertise, and we will.
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We will help embed that in the community development and the programming that we're already doing.
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But I can't emphasize enough that the Philippines is an incredibly rich and diverse country, and so it really, this work takes a lot of adaptation not only in the seeds that are being produced, and the different.
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You know, bio regions, but also in learning to navigate and work with the various different cultural communities and realities in the country.
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This is one of our seed libraries in at our Incibu, which is one of the southern islands, actually shout out to Renee, Renee's mom is Saablana, and Renee has roots in Cebu.
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Sabuz down here, so we operate a 1,200 m² seed production farm in as well as have a seed library there, so this is a picture of my recent trip last fall with some of the seeds at the seed production site as well as our seed library of our partner
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Ngo and for us, this moving into more expanded seed production is an essential piece of our model.
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There are an incredible demand for open pollinated high-quality seed throughout the Philippines, but there is not enough of it.
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And so we really see our role as bringing that education and that technical training, and that that skill set of how to go back to savingsats, to farmers, and then also when we're able investing in supporting either our own seed production site where we can grow more seed or encouraging our partner
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communities to do that. So right now, we operate this 1,200 m² seat production site.
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And and that is becoming a really important piece of what I'm gonna get into in a little bit of the climate realities in the Philippines the Philippines is actually one of the most climate vulnerable nations in the world.
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And so the real live time data each month, each quarter each year of what seeds are being produced.
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Well, what seeds are surviving! The storms, what seeds aren't at our seed production?
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Sites are really going to be the food that feeds the next communities in the Philippines, as they continue to face typhoons throughout the realities of climate change.
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Another big part of our model is our seed school teacher training program.
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And so this is where we help guide our farmers through a program of learning to teach seed school to their peers, which is really, really exciting.
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You know, we're getting more and more requests to bring our seed school program throughout the country.
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But we're still a very small and mighty team, and so we really want to equip our farmers to be the teachers in their own communities.
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And so this is actually a picture of a seed school teacher training that we launched last year.
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It was a 3 day program, all of these partner forers learned to facilitate seed school, and then, immediately after that training, they were able to go and teach 75 participants seed school.
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So they immediately had a real-time opportunity to share that knowledge and wisdom which is wonderful, so kind of a nod to what I shared about the climate realities in the Philippines.
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Maybe you all learned about this or read about it in the news at the end of 2,021, one of the largest storms on record hit the Philippines the week prior to Christmas Typhoon Odette there was 1.8 billion dollars of damages throughout the Philippine.
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Islands, about 9 million people were displayed in the coming months post.
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The typhoon, and all of our partner, farmers in Cebu were impacted, and we are not a relief organisation.
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We don't provide, you know, relief goods or immediate relief to communities.
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We really see ourselves as a long-term partner, but we were actually the first responders for our 28 core seed savers in Cebu, and we have now launched a program with all of them not only initially getting them the potable water the solar lights the initial things that
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they need, but now, helping them plan and prepare for the next typhoon, and ensure that they're rebuilding their farms that were destroyed in regenerative ways.
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And so we've launched a program called Idols with a local partner consultant in the Philippines.
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Idos stands for integrated, diversified organic farming systems.
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And this is a way to really root regenerative agriculture principles into our 28 partner farmers that were impacted by the typhoon and help them not just focus on the seed component, but really think about the whole ecosystem of their farm as they're rebuilding
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their farms, and preparing for their future, because the reality that the Philippines already knows, and that we're only just starting to see in this part of the world is it's not a matter of if the next typhoon comes it's a matter of when and what our farmers are seeing is
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that the typhoons are getting they're more frequent and they're of more intensity.
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And so for us, a global seatsavers really ensuring that we're preparing seedstock that we're working with our farmers to make sure that they have backup seed in those type of situations.
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But that they're also planning their farms to be more resilient in the in the realities that the type.
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And then, as I mentioned, we have our seed production site.
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So this last year we were able to develop 5 more go garden beds on that site.
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13, new varieties of seeds were produced, and we are very slowly starting to do some seed sales, although that's not the emphasis of our work.
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Again we really want to equip our partners and communities to just have the seed, stock and to be growing more quality seed.
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But again, there is demand on the market for seed, and so we were able to help facilitate around 900 Us.
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Dollars in sales of seed for our farmers and just to give you an economic kind of lens on that most of our farmers live on around a $1,000 a year and and access to local seed.
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So their ability to produce their own seed we've found is saving them around 10% of their income.
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So that's around $100 annually, which is a tremendous savings.
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I think we'd all like to save $100 if we could, each month or annually.
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And then I'm gonna pause. There, that's kind of big picture, global seat savers are programming how we do our work.
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I know that Francis has some questions around some of the recent opportunities that we've had, so I might pause and see if you want to jump in with questions.
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But again, it's really great to be here always in honor to get to share about our work, and I would say that just a thought before I let you jump in, Francis, this work has never been more important I think that's why we're all on this call I think that's why we're
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all connected to an organization like seeds in common. And I think what's exciting for me being the founder of this organization, and seeing where we're at in our lifestyles right now, it's really exciting to see that more and more people are waking up to that and that more and more people are
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getting engaged in our work, and in particular, that our farmers are becoming leaders in being the strongest advocates for this work in their own communities.
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Yeah, thank you so much for sharing all of that, Sherri and congratulations on creating this organization, and all of the successes and all of the impact that you've been able to make.
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It's just really amazing work. So congratulations. And thank you.
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So much for sharing. I have so many questions based off of what you just shared.
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And so I definitely wanna dig a bit more into, you know, the specific seed saving programs that you that you mentioned.
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And so when you say you, you know you partner, and you offer support like what is the support?
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Look like? Is it financial support? Isn't material support? Are you organizing with manpower like?
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What does it look like actually on the land in the Philippines?
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Yeah, no, that's that's a great question.
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We really believe in collaboration and in meeting our partners side by side where they're at.
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So I would say it looks different in every community, depending on their needs.
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We really also believe that that everyone has agency and an ability to engage in these in these processes and so as much as possible, there's always a counterpart of our community.
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So even when we bring a seed school to a partner, we're not fully funding that ourselves.
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There's there's a way for the community to provide either in-kind or in participant fees.
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Their ability to participate in those trainings. So yes, we do offer financial support in particular, as we're getting things off the ground we've implemented a model during Covid, where we were doing seedlibrary kits on farm for our partner farmers because we were not able to
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gather in person anymore, like we normally did. And so we were able to distribute kind of smaller on Facebook-farm seed library kits.
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So all of our farmers could still engage throughout the pandemic in having the right materials to properly store and save their seeds.
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So I would say, yes, we offer finance support, but we also offer a technical training, knowledge and support.
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And then we do offer community development and community building support as needed.
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Our founding farmers group in big Gett, the Binget Association of Seed Savers.
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We have really helped them form their organization and embed kind of how they want to operate again.
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Really, us, being a facilitator of that process. So allowing the farmers voices to be uplifted, and how they want to run their organization.
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But us kind of helping facilitate that conversation. I think I saw a question pop in the chat.
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Yeah, we are a 501 c, 3. Nonprofit organization.
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We have a board here in the Us. And then we also have a Philippine board, because we are actually 2 entities.
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We arere a Us. Entity. And then we're an equivalent entity in the Philippines, and we really believe again, that good development and the guidance and the strategy and the know-how of how to do this is in the hands of the people there and so it's very
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important to us that we have a Philippine board of directors and our Philippine staff get to help guide the vision and mission of the organizations.
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So. Yes, we do have a board. We have 2 boards.
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Us. Board, and a Philippine Board.
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Awesome. How many people do you have on staff in the Philippines?
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Yeah, yeah, we are actually going through some staff transitions right now.
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Cool.
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But we have 3 full time staff in the Philippines we have a program manager who was going to join us tonight, but wasn't able to.
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We have our seed production coordinator in Sabu, Harry, and then we have a marketing communications and development position in the Philippines as well.
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Sarah, and then one of our partner, farmers, man and Elizabeth, is kind of a part-time position, doing field coordination in the northern part of the country.
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So we have 3 full time. Staff will be hiring a fourth cause.
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We're searching for our next Philippine executive director, currently.
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Awesome. That's a lean and mean team, but it sounds like, you know, through your collaborative forces and your relationships that, like the team, definitely goes beyond just those 3.
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Soon for individuals that's awesome. I wanted to give you some more space to dive into specifically about your seed savings programs, build climate, resilient communities and networks so when we were emailing earlier this week, you kind of broke it down into 3 different programs the seeds school teacher
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training model integrated diversified organiz farming program.
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And then the growing network of sea teachers. So I was just wondering if there was some more details that you wanted to share on that topic.
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Yeah, yeah, I feel like I I shared quite a bit.
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Okay.
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Cool.
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Maybe I'll just share a story and kind of in the spirit of of a for a mentor you know, it's in our stories that we learn and often it's when things are being the most challenged. When we learn the most.
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And so a real test of our very first seed library that we established back in 2,017 into Glaidinggette was a typhoon came through there in 2,018, and it, actually, you know, just like the type, we know, Debt 2 years ago, in Cebu that
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Typhoon impacted all of our farmers in the North.
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But what we learn from that is, our seed library remained intact.
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The seed library was in a secure enough central location that it remained intact, and so literally just days after that typhoon all of our partner, farmers, were able to go and access their seeds, seeds that they had produced seeds that they knew would be resilient and seeds
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that they could plant immediately, as opposed to having to wait for the external aid, and things that we're coming in.
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And so for us that was a really prime example of this is why community-based seed libraries are so important.
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Right. And we've only seen that time and time again, after all the Typhoons.
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Since then. The first request that is made of us, and our farmers ask for, or they peers and other organizations ask for.
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It is seeds. And so we really believe the model of helping equip communities to produce their own seed.
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And helping them establish a shared network of how to share that resource and ensure that that resource is not only serving them now, but can be stored away to serve them in the future is an essential piece of climate.
00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:57.000
Resiliency. In fact, it's the only way that communities are going to be able to feed themselves as typhoons continue to hammer the islands.
00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:03.000
I think another important piece about our work is all of our farmers currently are.
00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:07.000
Many of them are market farmers, so a lot of them are producing seeds that actually aren't are producing crops that aren't actually native to the Philippines.
00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:18.000
The Philippines has gone through many, many years of colonization, and with that you know, different foods have come in for right or wrong.
00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:19.000
That's the case, and a lot of the high market value.
00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:25.000
Crops are not actually vegetables that are historically growing in the Filipino climate, and so seed savings for those seeds can be quite a challenge.
00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:35.000
So that's something that we're actually helping teach our farmers is how to properly save cabbage or carrot seeds.
00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.000
Cause those actually don't save as well as some other varieties.
00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:46.000
But the exciting thing that we've seen as farmers are getting more engaged in this practice and going back to this knowledge that all of their answcestors have is that they want to go back to growing wild crops.
00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:54.000
They want to go back to growing a lot of their indigenous food systems.
00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:56.000
And so we're really wanting to help uplift and support those projects as well.
00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:05.000
In addition to growing, this seeds that are on most immediate in the market, and so that's a really exciting piece.
00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:22.000
I think of this climate resiliency with the food system is, we have to start to think about the need to eat different foods as well as go back to the crops that are being, you know, that are most resilient in in the realities of the current time.
00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:23.000
Amazing. That's a perfect segue into my next question.
00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:33.000
I was curious when you were giving your slides about producing 13 new seed varieties.
00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:37.000
I was curious what kind of seeds you guys are interested, are you guys are producing?
00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:45.000
And how does it differ from somebody that's in the States doing, you know, backyard gardening or the typical, you know, market farming model that we see here?
00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:46.000
Yeah. No great question. So again, the Philippines is an incredibly bow.
00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:57.000
Diverse country, and so depending on the region, you know, different seeds are produced at the seed production site in Subu.
00:25:57.000 --> 00:25:58.000
Currently it's a lot of the lower land kind of hotter, better, and hot weather vegetables.
00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:02.000
So we've had very. We've had great success with Okra.
00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:05.000
We've had pretty tremendous success with beans in all of our locations.
00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:24.000
Different varieties of lagoon, and then I think, one of the other big crops in the South at the seed production site is there's a Filipino crop called umpalaya.
00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:26.000
It's bitter gold, so we've had success with that.
00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:27.000
So it's it's a lot of the lovely lands popular vegetables in that bio region of the Philippines.
00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:44.000
So certainly very different than what you see here in in the very short growing season that I have here in my home state of Colorado.
00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:55.000
Very cool. Thank you. And you were just speaking to the desire of the farmers wanting to have more wild crops grown and getting more back to an indigenous food system.
00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.000
So what? What does that look like? What crops does that include?
00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:03.000
Yeah, you know, it's it's it's a work in progress. A lot of that.
00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:08.000
One of our partner, farmers, Umacario, actually have a picture of him somewhere.
00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:23.000
I could show. But he actually runs a really beautiful kind of food forest and so a lot of those crops include different wide plants, wild shrubs as well as I think there's so many different varieties of lagoons right?
00:27:23.000 --> 00:27:36.000
That are in the Philippines. What you see in the market is often in the north they call it Bogyo beans, but it's like green beans, but our farmers actually have the capability, and know that there's tons of different varieties of beans and so again, I think
00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:45.000
it's. It's just re diversifying a lot of the crops that are being produced and then again, a lot of our farmers do produce lettuce.
00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:55.000
Other, you know, kind of higher value. Crops, but I think the wild crops play a particularly important role, and in the Philippines we don't actually help our farmers with these crops.
00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:56.000
But there are tubers everywhere, right? And so that's a different saving process.
00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:04.000
But there's Gabby, there's there's all sorts of different tubers where you either eat the actual root or in the Philippines.
00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:09.000
They're actually eating the leaves of those crops as well.
00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:28.000
And my kind of entry into this work when I was a Peace Corps volunteer was, I actually helped my host family there's a wild fern in the Philippines called Paco, that historically grows along river banks our founding farm my host family's farm has a river
00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:29.000
running through it, but it was actually quite hintaminated from an upstream mine.
00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:31.000
And so Paco was kind of being impacted by growing wildly on the on the riverbed.
00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:41.000
So we actually brought it up and put it into the Territories.
00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:44.000
And so we're producing fern in that way.
00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:56.000
And that's an edible fern. So that's kind of my like entry entry crop into the Philippines, and a wild crop that's very common in the Philippines, that people know is it's kind of like a fiddle edfer but.
00:28:56.000 --> 00:29:02.000
Oh, that's fascinating! And do do you eat it when it's in kind of the uncurling like fiddle phase, cool.
00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:05.000
Yep, yeah, you harvested at that young stage.
00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:12.000
It makes a really lovely salad, or like a quick saot, a with garlic, you know.
00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:14.000
Hmm! That sounds good. So I'm curious.
00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:16.000
Yeah.
00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:20.000
You were just talking about the tubers being really abundant in the Philippines.
00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:27.000
So I'm wondering like, would you consider tubers as being like a local staple food for Philippinos?
00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:28.000
Or what do you notice as being staple foods in the area, like, I'm thinking, in the Us. We have corn.
00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:41.000
We soy? But most people that are growing backyard gardens are market farming to the annuals of the carrots and the lettuce, and the things like that.
00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:44.000
So how do you see those 2 things happening in the Philippines?
00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:55.000
Yeah, no, it's a great question. So the Philippines is a rice eating and rice-producing country, although I won't get into all of the gypolitics around rice. I'm not an expert.
00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:14.000
But I certainly can provide some perspective, you know, rice is a very important essential crop in much of the Philippines, but because of various multilateral agreements with many countries, rice farming continues to be quite a challenge for a lot of rice producers just because
00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:15.000
of the the emphasis on importing rice from neighboring countries at a cheaper cost.
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:18.000
So that's getting into some of the bigger geopolitics of this.
00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:38.000
These efforts. But rice is a staple in the North that many of the indigenous peoples that we work with in the North Kamal day, which is a sweet potato, is a staple crop, and as well as there is a native corn in the southern part
00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:39.000
of Cebu, a variety of corn that some of our farmers work with.
00:30:39.000 --> 00:31:03.000
There again. The Philippines having many, many years of colonization, a lot of those crops actually were brought in by the Spaniards, but have been kind of reclaimed as local crops, and have been now in a lot of those communities food paths for a number of years for multiple generations and so while they may
00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:06.000
not all of those are native to the Philippines. They really consider them staple crops for their diet.
00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:21.000
And then there's also a really interesting millet. And in one of our partner communities in it's called Kabul, it's actually part of this slow food arc of taste, movement.
00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:29.000
And that's a a native millet. So a grain staple in that region of Saibo.
00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:42.000
Very cool. Thank you, Johannes asked a question earlier, and I think it ties in to where we are in the conversation now, he was wondering, like, how self sufficient is the Philippines on food.
00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:49.000
You know how much control our agency did they have over their food supply?
00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:50.000
Yeah.
00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:53.000
Yeah. That's a very big question, how much agency are control do any of us have over our food supply?
00:31:53.000 --> 00:31:58.000
Right. So I guess I'll answer it in a few ways.
00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:20.000
I think the pandemic highlighted the extreme challenges in the food supply network in the Philippines, and that really what we observed and what we were able to help tackle with partners was, it was actually our urban communities that were experiencing the most food
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:29.000
insecurity. In the early days of the because we've told our we've worked with our partner farmers for years, telling them you all have incredible wealth.
00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:37.000
You are producing your country's food right? And so when the pandemic happened and supply chains were cut down, and there was no movement.
00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:40.000
What we saw was a lot of our farmers in the North, which is one of the vegetable baskets of the country. There was a lot of food waste.
00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:54.000
There was crops going to waste, because the supply chains of getting the food down to the big, densely populated metropolitan areas had stopped.
00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:58.000
But those communities still needed food. The urban environment still needed food.
00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:04.000
And so we actually set up a program. Our past executive director really envisioned this with our partners called Idooyan, which is an Iblois term for coming together or music Aid.
00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:18.000
There's lots of terms like that in different Filipino languages, but we chose the community and the language that we work in in the North.
00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:34.000
And so we were able to partner with other Ngos in Metro Manila, who were working with primarily urban, urban poor communities, folks that were really food, insecure to to bring our crops from the North down to metro manila and ensure that they had access to healthy
00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:43.000
organic, Food, and then the neat thing with that, too, is our farmers didn't lose out on their economic opportunity to be paid for the crops that they were producing, and that food wasn't going to waste and so that actually turned into quite a robust program.
00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:59.000
I think we were able to distribute over 300 pounds of food during that program, and it also kept people employed during those initial months of the pandemic that were quite challenging for everyone.
00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:06.000
So I really believe that most places have the ability to be more food secure.
00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:07.000
It's a matter of how we do that and how we look at it.
00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:11.000
And so the Philippines is, an agricultural country, right?
00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:22.000
Everyone, most people. There's food being grown. It's just a matter of distribution and the quality of food, and how it gets to those that need it.
00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:26.000
Most so I would say that the pandemic again per presented.
00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:27.000
Let our farmers recognize. Hey, we're actually quite secure.
00:34:27.000 --> 00:34:33.000
We're we have backyard gardens, we grow our food.
00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:38.000
It's those in the densely populated urban areas that's where a lot of the food and security challenges are.
00:34:38.000 --> 00:34:40.000
I'm not saying there aren't in other areas, because there are.
00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:43.000
But I think what we've seen is this reawakening to?
00:34:43.000 --> 00:35:00.000
Why local foods systems are so important and not being so dependent on making sure that the food that you eat in Manila comes from the communities 7 h away in the North, but that communities really need to be thinking about their own food security within their own community.
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.000
Hmm, yes, preach, sister. That was an amazing response.
00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:13.000
Thank you for that. So I'm just like in my mind, visualizing like what these smaller farm terms look like in the Philippines.
00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:14.000
And so I'm curious like water, you know. Are they setting up, you know, policy to being with drip lines?
00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:28.000
Are they holding water? Are they collecting fog? What are their methods of having, you know, water, freedom on their farms?
00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:39.000
Yeah. Great question. Unlike. Well, your location. There or even where I'm at here in Colorado, the Philippines either has dry season or typhoon season, right?
00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:40.000
And so there's either a lack of water or an overabundance of water right?
00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:47.000
I would say most of our farmers have some sort of not super advanced, but some sort of irrigation system.
00:35:47.000 --> 00:36:01.000
Be that just their own, you know. PVC. Piping with little drips put in many of our farmers do engage in water catchment when needed.
00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:08.000
I think the bigger challenge that we don't have an answer to, but that we're wanting to work with our partners and other experts to help find is really the challenges that the extreme weather brings when there's too much water.
00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:19.000
Right. How do you preserve crops when they're just being hammered by typhoons?
00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:28.000
And in in in our experience, those crops actually don't get preserved, or if they do, that's the crrop that you wanna save right?
00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:36.000
If if a typhoon comes in and everything is wiped out, but that one row of beans survives, that's your that's your survivor.
00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:40.000
That's the one that you want to save and keep replanting, because that's the one that's starting to adopt.
00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.000
So most of our farmers don't currently implement a lot of what we would.
00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:57.000
Maybe call like sophisticated technologies, but are certainly utilizing some drips systems, some water catchment systems, things like that.
00:36:57.000 --> 00:37:13.000
Very cool. Thank you. There was a gentleman who is farming in Ecuador, who who emailed us at cats in common for for scholarship for our seats, school, one on one program, and and we've been kind of emailing back and forth and he's on
00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:21.000
a small one. Acre plot with him and his sister and his aunt and they're right at the foot hills of Simons there, and so they have built a fog catching machine and it's not even really a machine.
00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:35.000
It's essentially 4 walls and the 4 corners are like PVC piping, maybe 12 feet tall.
00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:44.000
Each wall would be 4 6 feet wide, and it's like mesh, and so the water will collect on the mesh and the mesh is like pretty tightly woven.
00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:55.000
And so when the water collects it, it flex in the mesh, and then it will drip down, and they harvest the water, and it drips down like a like a half moon.
00:37:55.000 --> 00:38:10.000
PVC. Play into a holding tank that they they have it going like downhill with old swimming pools like Kitty pools, and so here in the Us.
00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:11.000
Yeah.
00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:13.000
I'm not sure we would call that sophisticated but to me I'm like, that's the sophisticated that is very sophisticated technology.
00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:14.000
Yup!
00:38:14.000 --> 00:38:19.000
And he made a point to to speak to how most of the materials that they use to create the fog catchment system we're re-purposed locally found materials essentially that would be wasted.
00:38:19.000 --> 00:38:26.000
And I'm like that is that's innovative.
00:38:26.000 --> 00:38:31.000
That sophisticated as good as anything else that I've ever heard called those things.
00:38:31.000 --> 00:38:34.000
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yep.
00:38:34.000 --> 00:38:39.000
Do you? Does the Philippines have any regulations with catching rainwater?
00:38:39.000 --> 00:38:49.000
I know there's some weird like depending on where you are in Colorado, and I think also in New Mexico there's regulations with catching water and holding water on your property.
00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:53.000
Not that I'm aware of, but that's that's an interesting question.
00:38:53.000 --> 00:38:59.000
I should do some thoughts on that. But yeah, most of our fruits are, you know, catching water.
00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:05.000
In some instant, especially during the times where there's an abundance of it but not that I'm aware of.
00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:10.000
And another thing that we're really engaged with, we collaborate with the Philippine Permaculture Association and many of our farmers have attended permaculture design courses and really bring in a lot of that.
00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:17.000
You know whole ecosystem design principles into their their farming practices.
00:39:17.000 --> 00:39:31.000
And and that's some of what we've tried to help in our training opportunities as farmers, really recognizing, you know, the need to think just not just the plots that they're putting the produce in.
00:39:31.000 --> 00:39:41.000
But the whole ecosystem, and really thinking about how to build those zones and have those different swales and the different catchment areas, and all of those important pieces.
00:39:41.000 --> 00:39:52.000
Very cool, so when you guys are hosting the trainings, or, you know, coming together to brainstorm solutions, you know, like, Where where is the knowledge coming from? Like?
00:39:52.000 --> 00:40:00.000
Is the community coming together to brainstorm? Do you have, like masters or experts like identified, that are familiar with the climate that comes in or like?
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:02.000
What is that?
00:40:02.000 --> 00:40:07.000
Yeah, so all of our trainings farmers are teachers in them.
00:40:07.000 --> 00:40:11.000
And so we really believe that our farmers have knowledge and wisdom to share.
00:40:11.000 --> 00:40:12.000
And so they are participants and trainers of the next seed schools.
00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:21.000
So the farmers are teaching their peers as well as some of our staff, I would say, have technical expertise.
00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:22.000
That's actually something that we want to build up more in our team as we're growing.
00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:25.000
And then, as I shared, we will bring on concerns as needed to lead and guide particular programs.
00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:41.000
So an example is the Idols program that we brought in last year in response to typhoon Odette, that's working with a Filipino consultant that's coming in to teach those regenerative.
00:40:41.000 --> 00:40:57.000
And I doffs farming principles, but we really believe at global seedsavers that our farmers have the tremendous knowledge and wisdom to teach their peers and try our best to facilitate opportunities for them to be the ones upfront teaching those programs in addition to
00:40:57.000 --> 00:41:01.000
our local staff.
00:41:01.000 --> 00:41:08.000
Yes, thank you. Johannes had another question. You mentioned dry season and typhoon season.
00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:09.000
How are the growing seasons compared? How are the growing season?
00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:23.000
Competitive the weather season. So perhaps the question is, what time of year is it? Typhoon season, and what time of year is the dry season?
00:41:23.000 --> 00:41:29.000
Yeah, so it's changing right? Typhoon season is coming sooner is what we're seeing.
00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:31.000
Hmm!
00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:37.000
But right now is the dry planting season, although, Phil, it's a tropical climate.
00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:43.000
So things are planted year round, but the the the heavy typhoon seasons.
00:41:43.000 --> 00:41:53.000
It's starting to shift. When I first went to the Phillipines it was really it was really, I think, in June, moving into the our fall season here.
00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:56.000
But we're we're now starting to see that extend.
00:41:56.000 --> 00:42:05.000
And actually, the last 2 years, the largest storms have been in December, which is quite late, that typhoon Odette, that hit in 2021.
00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:16.000
The week before Christmas was the week before Christmas. I think it was December sixteenth that that was quite late to have such a strong and impactful storm, so that the seasons are shifting.
00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:26.000
But people do plant year round in the tropical climate, just trying to to be aware of the typhoons and the storms that may or may not be.
00:42:26.000 --> 00:42:27.000
Yeah, thank you. I did have that question, too.
00:42:27.000 --> 00:42:31.000
So thanks for answering. I wanna ask you about Gb.
00:42:31.000 --> 00:42:42.000
9. But before we kind of move into that, I'm wondering if there's any thing that you wanted to add about your seed saving programs or the seed libraries that you manage.
00:42:42.000 --> 00:42:48.000
Yeah, I mean, I think, just one thing I always like to say, and I think I kind of emphasize this.
00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:52.000
But I just want to say it again. Cuz. I know this is a friendly crowd, and maybe new people listening.
00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:58.000
You know, we take a lot of pride in being an organization.
00:42:58.000 --> 00:43:00.000
That is it that we're doing something really innovative and new, right?
00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:15.000
We really believe that seed saving and these practices are a longstanding tradition that we're helping communities go back to something that's in all of our lineage.
00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.000
And yes, we need to adapt. We need to operate in the present time that we're living in.
00:43:19.000 --> 00:43:38.000
But we really believe that the best way to do that is to go back to this historical wisdom and maybe do it in a new and innovative reality of now, but really rooting ourselves in that this doing something as basic as learning to save your own seeds and growth needs for your community is innovative in and
00:43:38.000 --> 00:43:51.000
of itself, so I just always like to emphasize that, because I think it's easy in the sector that we're in in the nonprofit sector to want to do the next flashy big thing which isn't necessarily bad there's a need for technology there's a need
00:43:51.000 --> 00:44:00.000
for new innovations. But we really believe that seed saving is a longstanding innovation in and of itself.
00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:10.000
Yeah, thank you. Again for highlighting that it's definitely a delicate dance between meeting the modern needs and honoring the ancestral man-based wisdom.
00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:16.000
So let's jump into. Gb. 9. What is the international tree on plan?
00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:23.000
Genetic resources for food and agriculture. It's like I have to do, like 3 Google Sessions, just to get the name right.
00:44:23.000 --> 00:44:24.000
Yeah, I know you did a great job when I was leading up to attending it.
00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:31.000
I would like rattle it off to friends, and they're like whoops like a what you call it.
00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:40.000
So, yes, so we had the good fortune through our mentor and the founder of Rocky Mountain ced alliance.
00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:52.000
Bill Mcdonnell this last fall to participate as an Ngo observer at the Ninth Governing Body session of the food and aggregulture organizations.
00:44:52.000 --> 00:45:00.000
Itpgrfa, which is the International Treaty on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:08.000
So this is the treaty that governs 63 of the world's most common crops.
00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:11.000
You can go and I think Francis is putting in the in the chat.
00:45:11.000 --> 00:45:14.000
You can go and see what those crops are. Many of them are what you would think.
00:45:14.000 --> 00:45:19.000
Some of the most common grains, most common vegetables, things like that.
00:45:19.000 --> 00:45:26.000
And so the treaty governs really all the players that are part of producing that genetic material.
00:45:26.000 --> 00:45:46.000
This was a huge opportunity for us. Bill was able to attend and represent with past Rmsa staff in 39 at the Treaty Conference in Rome, and then this last year it was held in New Delhi, India, and so myself our former Executive, director in the
00:45:46.000 --> 00:45:53.000
Philippines, Karen and Bill Mcdormand, all attended, and it was a big eye opening experience for us.
00:45:53.000 --> 00:46:03.000
It was really amazing to see that the world even attempts to come together and agree on anything, let alone the crops that are feeding the world.
00:46:03.000 --> 00:46:10.000
So it was really fascinating to get to witness the bigger geopolitics that are playing out for a treaty that governs these crops.
00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:20.000
You know every about not everybody. I think it's 52 countries, and don't quote me on the number have signed the treaty.
00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:33.000
And so countries from all over the world are represented and so they have voting delegates, and then there's you can participate as an observer, and so that's how we were.
00:46:33.000 --> 00:46:37.000
There was as an Ngo observer, and I would say I learned the most from actually engaging and interacting with our fellow Ngo colleagues.
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Every morning before the sessions we would gather and meet.
00:46:41.000 --> 00:46:50.000
There are people in those rooms who have been a part of founding the treaty.
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In fact, a good friend of bills and now a friend of ours, Andrew Bisheida, who runs a really delicate and not delicate, but a really wonderful organization in Zimbabwe.
00:46:58.000 --> 00:47:07.000
He was a part of the founding of the treaty, and and so it was really amazing to gather.
00:47:07.000 --> 00:47:15.000
Every morning we would get our ducks in the row about what we discussed, and the stance that we wanted to take as collective Ngos.
00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:31.000
And so then the way it works on the floor is the different country delegates and voting delegates get to speak on the matter, and then, once everyone has spoken, they open it up for observers to get to speak, and so each morning depending on the subject, we would elect someone from our
00:47:31.000 --> 00:47:35.000
network, to read a statement on behalf of the Ngos and the Csos.
00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:36.000
The community supported organizations about our opinion on the matters that were happening.
00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:53.000
One of the big differences at this year's was Farmers Rights article 9 of the treaty does recognize farmers rights, but there has been a six-year working group to figure out what does that mean?
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And how is that really implemented? And what does that language need to look like in the treaty, as you can imagine?
00:47:58.000 --> 00:48:11.000
Many of the bigger Western powers that we had some qualms with particular language in honoring and recognizing farmers rights, and so this is actually a tremendous honor.
00:48:11.000 --> 00:48:24.000
Karen, my former colleague. She got to read the farmers right statement on behalf of all the Ngos on the floor of the main treaty, and I can actually share the link to that video.
00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:43.000
If you wanted to post it because it was just a really wonderful opportunity to get to name our stance and to make sure that that everyone in the in the hall knew that you know all of us as Ngos represent the billions of farmers around the world who are the ones preserving our genetic material and they need to
00:48:43.000 --> 00:48:51.000
be at the forefront of the decisions in how the treaty and these bigger multipleilateral institutions are funding and supporting this work.
00:48:51.000 --> 00:48:55.000
I would say we really gained the most and learned the most from engaging with the other.
00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:57.000
Ngo colleagues. People in that room have learned how to navigate that whole system.
00:48:57.000 --> 00:49:21.000
We really those that need that really get to be lobbyists, you know, as different matters requiring forward for votes the countries that were supportive of the Ngos would find those networks and make sure that they voted correctly so it was really a fascinating experience and I think one
00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:26.000
thing it did for us and for me is really helped us recognize that.
00:49:26.000 --> 00:49:31.000
Yes, our work is focused in the Philippines, but we're a part of this much larger ecosystem, and being a player in the room, at these global scales is so essential.
00:49:31.000 --> 00:49:46.000
If the Ngo networks and the farmers rights organizations work there, the discussions how things ended up would have gone a completely different way.
00:49:46.000 --> 00:49:54.000
And so it was really powerful to get to see how, having us in the room having farmers get to share their stories on the stage, did impact the bigger decisions that were made at the higher treaty level.
00:49:54.000 --> 00:50:01.000
So it was. It was a phenomenal experience.
00:50:01.000 --> 00:50:12.000
I could talk more a lot more about it. It's fascinating to know how those systems and processes work building, building, building, treaties takes a long time.
00:50:12.000 --> 00:50:15.000
You got to be patient. It's a lot of word smithing, but it matters.
00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:27.000
At the end of the day. It's a huge inspiration that has a lot of funding that can continue to do a lot of good in the world if it's done well and in collaboration with all the right partners.
00:50:27.000 --> 00:50:41.000
Yeah, that is absolutely fascinating. So thank you for grounding us in that whole system, because even just trying to go online and read about it, I'm like, okay, but what is what do they actually do?
00:50:41.000 --> 00:51:00.000
What is actually going on. So these players all come together. These people that are representing their, you know, Ngos or Csos, or, you know, larger government organizations all come together to discuss farmers, rights and patent laws and genetic material and all of these things.
00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:20.000
And then, whatever comes forth, whatever ideas or topics are agreed upon, then, you know, there's actionable steps that are steps that are created to be taken to move that into a policy, or to move that into something actionable, so that it is affecting change in the world is that a pretty good.
00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:29.000
Yeah, yeah. And I will say to the various larger gene banks are a part of that whole system, too.
00:51:29.000 --> 00:51:30.000
Okay.
00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:33.000
So there's government representation. There's voting delegates from the signatory countries.
00:51:33.000 --> 00:51:39.000
There was the Ngo networks, and then there's all.
00:51:39.000 --> 00:51:40.000
Hmm!
00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:45.000
There's the seed industry. There's the seat banks, you know, and so it's all the players, I mean, Bill, any of you that know Bill, on the call.
00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.000
You'll appreciate this, he the first day on the floor and he'd been to it in Rome.
00:51:49.000 --> 00:51:51.000
So he knew he looked at us, and he said, Isn't this exciting?
00:51:51.000 --> 00:51:57.000
Everyone here is talking about seeds, and he's right.
00:51:57.000 --> 00:52:01.000
Everyone there was talking about seeds. It was from different vantage points.
00:52:01.000 --> 00:52:02.000
It was from different perspectives, but everyone there was talking about genetic material.
00:52:02.000 --> 00:52:09.000
And these 64 different crops that the treaty manages, and so that that was, you know, that was a cool way that Bill always has to like.
00:52:09.000 --> 00:52:21.000
Bring us down to the core of it, you know I will say one actionable thing that came out of the tree that we're really looking forward to participating in this year is the farmers rights resolution did pass.
00:52:21.000 --> 00:52:44.000
The language was not as strong as we in the Ngo Network had wanted it to be, but it did pass, and a next step from that is the Indian Government offered to host again, a farmer's Rights Symposium, and it sounds like that's going to happen in September back in new
00:52:44.000 --> 00:53:01.000
Delhi and what that's going to do is bring together all the players from the voting delegates, from the Ngos, from other people involved in the treaty that want to come together and discuss farmers, rights, and how you implement them and learn from each other about how the different countries around the
00:53:01.000 --> 00:53:10.000
world are implementing farmers, right systems, and engaging in that work together and so we're really looking forward to hopefully attending that, bringing many of our farmers.
00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:18.000
If we're able, and then also returning to Navanya, where we got to spend 3 days post the treaty, and we actually got to meet Dr.
00:53:18.000 --> 00:53:23.000
Mundan Isiba. But we're looking forward to continuing to engage with the Fao in the treaty.
00:53:23.000 --> 00:53:27.000
In that capacity, as well as hopefully be able to bring our farmers to that farmers right?
00:53:27.000 --> 00:53:34.000
Symposium, so that they can learn from their peers around the world.
00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:41.000
Yes, again. Congratulations! That is absolutely huge, and I look forward to hearing about your visit in the fall, because I'm sure you guys will make it there.
00:53:41.000 --> 00:53:53.000
We have about 5 min left but I would like to hear a little bit more about your experience at Nottingham, and visiting with Dr.
00:53:53.000 --> 00:54:05.000
Briana Shiva, and then, if anybody else has any questions or comments that they would like to make to Sherri, kind of gather your thoughts, there will be an opportunity to do that.
00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.000
Yeah, so we we. The treaty was about 1210 to 12 days, if I'm remembering correctly, memory serves me.
00:54:09.000 --> 00:54:33.000
And then we we only had about 4 additional days, so we were able to fly up to Dairy Dun, and then spend 3 days at Napdana, which many of you probably know is Bundanishima's famous incredible diversity Farm in Northern India and so that was really our Rnr
00:54:33.000 --> 00:54:47.000
it was our downtime which was a wonderful place to do, that after being stuck in the hel and in meetings all day, it was wonderful to re-engage with the land and be back in nature and actually it was quite an exciting time at Nvania.
00:54:47.000 --> 00:54:59.000
They were getting ready to launch their first in-person course since Covid and so there were a number of students arriving from around the world to attend their agency of Agro ecology course that was happening the week after we were there.
00:54:59.000 --> 00:55:05.000
We did not know if we were going to get to meet Dr.
00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:06.000
Mundan, Isiba Bill knows her personally, and has hosted her in the Us.
00:55:06.000 --> 00:55:12.000
Before, so he was in touch with her, but as it turned out, we did get to meet her, which was just really tremendous.
00:55:12.000 --> 00:55:20.000
And phenomenal. So we sat with her twice, actually.
00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:21.000
So she sat with us as well as some of the other students, that were there, and just shared her wisdom.
00:55:21.000 --> 00:55:34.000
Her knowledge. I will say that it was wonderful to see her in her space, to see her at Nabdana.
00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:42.000
There was a softness about her in that space, and I think her firmness is needed and is important.
00:55:42.000 --> 00:55:43.000
But it was quite lovely to see her in her beautiful farm that she's built.
00:55:43.000 --> 00:56:02.000
You can tell that that really is her home, and she actually said, You know I I've enjoyed not having to travel so much these last few years due to the pandemic she's really been able to root in in Nafania which is wonderful a really exciting outcome from that is very
00:56:02.000 --> 00:56:21.000
early on in our conversation with her. She looked at Karen and I, and said, You know the Philippines and India really should work more together, and I like almost started crying because I remember actually, when we founded our first seed library in Tube live and get we gave all of our partner farmers her seed
00:56:21.000 --> 00:56:25.000
freedom, pledge, and all of them have it handing on their farms.
00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.000
And I remember saying, oh, like maybe someday, Nvania or Dr.
00:56:29.000 --> 00:56:41.000
Shiva will know about our work. And so it really felt like a big milestone for us to get to be at Nabdana, to get to see her space, to get to interface with her and to start to envision.
00:56:41.000 --> 00:56:42.000
How we could collaborate because they're actually doing very similar programming, that we are our last morning.
00:56:42.000 --> 00:57:03.000
There there was a group of about 30 women farmers that were attending an organic farming training, and so we sat with them in the morning and got to hear their opening songs and opening ceremony before their training started, and a big part of their model that they're now doing is
00:57:03.000 --> 00:57:15.000
cede-teacher training. So they're not only facilitating trainings, but they're helping prepare their Indian farmers to teach their Indian peers and that's a huge part of our model as well so lots of synergies.
00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:21.000
We're really hopeful we'll be able to go back to Nabdana, bring our staff, bring some of our farmers, and having a rich exchange, and learn as well as teach in that space.
00:57:21.000 --> 00:57:34.000
But it was really wonderful to walk in and see that world's famous seed library, you know. I think I think the pandemic has impacted everyone, but it was.
00:57:34.000 --> 00:57:35.000
It was quite wonderful to be there and see that they're still thriving.
00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:40.000
They're still going, and the timing of it was great.
00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:45.000
There was a lot of energy on the land because they were getting prepared for their first in-person course.
00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:48.000
Since Covid. And again, you know Dr. Shiva's energy just brings brings a palpable spirit.
00:57:48.000 --> 00:57:50.000
So a personal as well as professional dream fulfilled that I got to spend a little bit of time with Dr.
00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:58.000
She!
00:57:58.000 --> 00:58:04.000
My goodness, that sounds just wonderful. Thank you for sharing your experience about that.
00:58:04.000 --> 00:58:19.000
Does anybody have anything that they'd like to ask Sherri any closing thoughts feel free just to unmute at this time?
00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:23.000
Alright. Well, I'm gonna go ahead and wrap it up. Sherry. Thank you.
00:58:23.000 --> 00:58:27.000
Thank you for this hour, spending with you, which is lovely.
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I really enjoy just learning more about all the details that global scene savers is doing in the world.
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And thank you and your whole team for all of the incredible work that you're doing.
00:58:45.000 --> 00:58:56.000
Global seed savers consider making a donation. If you have the financial capacity to do so and thank you for joining us for this month's seat story.
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I hope you all have a beautiful, blessed evening.
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Thank you, Francis, and seeds in common. Thanks for all your work.
00:59:02.000 --> 00:59:04.000
Thanks for being here and listening.
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Thanks, everybody.
