Overview
In her latest book The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food, Janisse Ray writes about the importance of seed-saving to human health, food security and the earth's biodiversity. These two excerpts from Ray's talk at Emory University September 5, 2013 present her narrative as well as insights gleaned from seed-savers she has met across the United States.
Presentation
Part 2: Ray overviews the modern extinction of many food seed varieties and the industrialization of US agriculture
About the Author
Janisse Ray was born in Baxley, Georgia, in 1962 and graduated from the MFA program in Creative Writing at the University of Montana in 1997. She currently resides in the Altamaha Community of Reidsville, Georgia, and teaches in the low-residency creative writing program at Chatham University. She has published poetry and non-fiction books, including Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (1999). Ray lives and works on a family farm in southern Georgia.
Recommended Resources
Cary Fowler, "Reaping What We Sow," Southern Changes, 5, no.6 (1983): 14-18. http://beck.library.emory.edu/southernchanges/article.php?id=sc05-6_008
Tom Hatley, "Tending Our Gardens," Southern Changes, 6, no. 5 (1984): 18-24. http://beck.library.emory.edu/southernchanges/article.php?id=sc06-5_007
Ray, Janisse. "Waiting for the Tide: Creating an Environmental Community in Georgia." Orion Afield, Summer 1999.
———. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 1999.
———. Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2005.
———. The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2012.
———. Wild Card Quilt: The Ecology of Home. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 2004.
Links
International Seed Saving Institute
http://www.seedsave.org/
Janisse Ray
http://janisseray.weebly.com/
Saving Our Seeds Project
http://www.savingourseeds.org/
