08/12/2024
✨ Kumukutikutitap, bumubusibusilak ✨
Ganyan ang pagtanggap ng mga kasama sa BLTX! 🌟
☔ Umulan man o ☀️ umaraw, lagi't laging paalala ng Better Living kung bakit mas kailangan nating magtiwala sa kakayahan ng isa't isa na hindi makalimot at maglakas-loob na magsimula.
🥘 Mula sa paghahanda para pagsaluhan ang presensya man ng isa't isa o ng Good Food ng mga kasama, sa pangangalaga ng binhi ng mga kasama nating magsasaka, at sa pagbubuo ng iba't ibang genuine alternative / collective efforts ng mga kaibigan.
Mas merry ang pagsasalo kung kasama ka rito. Hanggang sa susunod!
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🌾 SEED SOVEREIGNTY 🤝 ZINE PRODUCTION ✂️
💥 FREEDOM TO SHARE, EXCHANGE, and CULTIVATE 💥
Notes from Farmers Situationer and Seed Sovereignty of MASIPAG and SAKA:
🧬 GENETIC IMPERIALISM. Yesterday we sat with MASIPAG and SAKA to talk about the situation of Filipino farmers and seed freedom and its intersections with zine making 🤝 Friends from MASIPAG discussed the history of “genetic imperialism” in the Philippines—from Masagana 99 launched by dictator Marcos Sr. in the 1970s which caused the violent seizure of more than 4,000 local and indigenous variety of seeds, the cultivation of the single variant IR8 seed which caused dire situations in seed diversity and food security, to the proliferation of property rights of seed varieties and the planned membership of the country to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, which criminalizes communal seed sharing and seed breeding.
🌾 COMMUNAL WORLDVIEW IN SEED BREEDING. Amidst the pressures of genetic imperialism, farmers continue to breed and exchange seeds, cultivating food and agricultural systems 🌍 rooted in mutual solidarity and cultural negotiation. Driven by the call of their own needs, farmers aim to develop seed varieties that resonate with their land and climate. 🏞🌦️
🥬 ALTERNATIVE WAYS AS RESISTANCE. What does seed freedom have in common with zine production? 🤔🌱✂️ Seed sovereignty and zine production share the same goals: freedom to work, create, cultivate, and share with the community, whether it be seeds or ideas, or statements. In the hands of greedy, abusive, and exploitative corporations and capitalists, we are to experience the same violence and lack of freedom and rights. As Eli from MASIPAG and Ian from Makò Micro-Press said, there is always a need for alternative ways of doing, creating, and being that becomes our tool for resistance against all forms of domination💥 Zines, as a tool for all, is one way for communities to tell, narrate, remember, discuss, and think about our shared experiences and aspirations under conditions of greed, domination, and violence.
