Guerrilla Gardening

I have been re-reading Guerrrilla Gardening by John F. Adams, which was published in 1983.  Recently I posted about Senate Bill S410, and the alarm it was causing in some circles.  John F. Adams raised alarms about legislation of another kind.  He wrote:

"Another trend that threatens traditional seeds is downright Orwellian.  Although individual companies do develop and claim ownership of new varieties, basically, except for some ornamental varieties such as roses, plants and seed have always been, in whatever variety they grew, public property.  In recent years there has been a movement to pass laws all over the world, but especially in Europe and North America, that would effectively take ownership of plant species out of the public domain and make such ownership private and commercial.  Because the subtle differences between similar varieties of plants makes legal distinctions extremely difficult, there is a movement of members ot he European Common Market to restrict varieties of plants that can be grown to those listed in the "Common Catalog"...."


Although it has been 27 years since Adams penned those words, it was kind of chilling to read.

Disturbing News from South of the Border

If Americans ever received a clearer indicator that they no longer live in the land of the free, it's the kind of legislation the U.S. Senate is contemplating right now, Senate Bill S410 Food Safety Moderation Act.  It seems ironic that it is Canadian "watch dogs" that have alerted Americans to this threat.  Check out the article.

I've read a lot of survivalist blogs and texts floating around on the internet, and there was one fellow/group who predicted this very thing, and worse, so it was a bit surreal to see this kind of thing going on in the U.S.  Imagine making seed-saving illegal.  Let's take another step, and imagine making it illegal to use compost that you made yourself, illegal to grow non-hybrid crops, illegal to use home-made alternatives to commercial products.  Sounds like a movie I recently watched called Downstream is not entirely crazy.

I hope this kind of insane BigCorp mentality isn't contagious.

Update December 1, 2010:  Check out Dr. Laura's Blog.  The thought police are rising in America.