You say tOmAto, I say toMAto. but however you say it, its September bounty season for the Bay Area
While the rest of the country starts to prepare for the coming fall season, we lucky Bay Area residents are reveling in glorious blue skies, balmy days and lovely, cool nights. Not only are the local farmers' markets full of locally grown produce, it's the time of the year for the National Heirloom Expo at the Sonoma Country Fairgrounds (Santa Rosa).
The three-day event is sponsored in-part by Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company and will feature a long list of world-renowned speakers headlined by Dr. Vandana Shiva known as “one of the world’s most dynamic and provocative thinkers.”
Other keynote speakers will be Jeffery M. Smith, author and leading consumer advocate for healthy non-GMO foods, and Alice Waters, world-renowned chef and crusader for eating locally, sustainably raised foods.
This will likely be the largest event for heritage agriculture ever held. Learn from America’s top growers and food celebrities! Enjoy workshops, demonstrations and great music - as well as taking a stand against genetically manufactured seeds that require expensive upkeep.
The opening speaker is Dr. Shiva, the founder of Navdanya, a movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources, especially native seeds, and she is recognized as one of the leaders in the pure food movement, both in her native India and abroad.
“Over the past three decades I have tried to be the change I want to see,” she notes on the Navdanya website. “When I found that dominant science and technology served the interests of the powerful, I left academics to found the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, a participatory, public interest research organization. When I found global corporations wanted to patent seeds, crops or life forms, I started Navdanya to protect biodiversity, defend farmers’ rights and promote organic farming.
“The National Heirloom Expo is being held at a critical time,” said Dr. Shiva in a recent interview. “While GMO crops are failing, the aggression to push them has never been stronger. Monsanto would like a world of toxic monocultures doused with round up and overtaken by super weeds and super pests.
“We will have to fight Monsanto many times over. Each lawsuit is important in the struggle to keep our seed and food GMO free. I have already had to introduce four cases against Monsanto. I am extremely optimistic that the collective case filed to prevent Monsanto from using patent law to sue farmers they have contaminated will have an impact. It has already had an impact by bringing so many organizations together.
To become better educated on the future of our food, Dr. Shiva recommends the following resources: the Navdanya website, www.navdanya.org, and newsletter Bija; the Erosion, Technology and Control Council, www.ectc.org; the Center for Food Safety, www.centerforfoodsafety.org; and the newsletter of The Institute for Science and Society, www.i-sis.org.uk.
“We want a world of biodiversity, of safe seed and food, of seed sovereignty and food sovereignty,” Dr. Shiva stressed. “That is why I will be coming to the National Heirloom Exposition, because it is defending our future.”
The Exposition runs September 13, 14 and 15, 2011 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily at the Santa Rosa Fairgrounds in Sonoma County, California.
To purchase tickets to the Exposition and for more details, visit www.nationalheirloomexposition.com.
(Special incentives available for online ticket purchase.) Admission is $10 per day for adults; no charge for children and youth up to 17 years old. Three-day pass is $25.
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