Last summer a state inspector notified librarians in Mechanicsburg, PA, that a seed exchange in their local library was violating state law. Some libraries, in response to a growing interest in locally grown food and a movement to preserve heritage varieties, have set up seed exchanges. Farmers have been exchanging seeds for hundreds of years, but now it appears that many states have made this kind of seed swaps illegal.
I did not realize when my neighbor George gave me some hot pepper seeds last year that he might be violating state law.
According to the article in Lancaster Farming (Scott McFetridgte, “Crackdowns on Seed Libraries Spread Across U.S.,” Jan. 3, 2015, p. A26), a group in Oakland, CA, will provide info on state laws on seed libraries. Go online and look for “Seed Law Tool Shed.”
The article did not say why states passed such repressive (and ridiculous) laws, but I’m guessing it was because of requests from companies like Monsanto who are developing GMO seeds and want to preserve their monopolies.
Thanks for the exposure. We will have to do on the QT.
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