2S Seed Stewardship School

Issues surrounding Indigenous seed sovereignty in Canada can be sourced to two key problems: seed health and access, and seed stewardship education. Currently, four corporations control 60% of the world’s seed sales, and 95% of corporate seeds grown are bred with the heavy use of industrial fertilizers and insecticides. This has impacted seeds’ preparedness for climate change as well as their nutritional content, as many crops have lost 30-100% of their vitamin content compared with 60 years ago. Our climate-resilient and nutritious Indigenous seed varieties, developed and nurtured by our ancestors, have been stolen from our communities, genetically modified and commodified without our consent, and neglected within our communities due such factors as residential schools and assimilationist agricultural policies. Currently, our at-risk seeds and seed teachings are held by aging seed keepers and are in critical need of our attention. Of key concern in this seed crisis is the lack of seed knowledge transmission opportunities, particularly for Indigenous 2S, T, Enby, and Q people. Nearly all of the very few spaces available to learn about seed skills are alienating people of these identities through Trans- and queerphobic approaches. As a result, most of our 2S, T, Enby, and Q community members are learning about seeds in isolation without peer support and have expressed to us a need for intensive anti-oppressive, decolonial seed saving and agricultural education opportunities.