Seed library takes root in Sandpoint
<p>Camile McKitrick and Duane Church stand next to the seed library at the East Bonner County Library. The free service is designed to reinvigorate the concept of seed-saving, while creating true heirloom seeds that thrive in local soil and climate conditions. (Photo by DAVID GUNTER)</p>
SANDPOINT — Who would have thought it possible? Tucked away in a corner of a small town public library in Pennsylvania, a dangerous cadre of home gardeners was gearing up for what the U.S. Department of Agriculture saw as a potential network of “agri-terrorism.”
Their tools: Seemingly harmless garden seed. The feds came down hard and broke the back of this insidious plot, leveraging the powers of the Seed Act of 2004 to shut the operation down. With that action, the Joseph T. Simpson Public Library in Mechanicsburg, Pa., informed patrons that free seed would no longer be made available for their gardens.
If this scenario, which took place this past summer, sounds like using a sledgehammer to swat a gnat, consider that large agri-business has been driving to own the seed market for decades — to the point where a handful of seed-savers look like a threat.
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