Food sovereignty is an important social issue that we at Laughing Radish are very passionate about. Access to fresh, healthy and culturally meaningful food is a major indicator of wellness, yet many people are limited by cost and availability. Food is a basic human right and everyone should have the freedom to choose what kinds of foods best support their mind, body, and spirit. Unfortunately, this is not the case for many.
Food sovereignty emphasizes local decision-making, cultural traditions and ecological sustainability rather than relying on global industrial food systems as we progress though increased impact of climate change. As environmental conditions become more extreme, wars cause transportation and gas costs to rise and genetic engineering restricts diversity within the food system, we will not be able to effectively rely on large-scale, internationally grown food commodities. A shift towards local, community-based food systems, with a focus on climate resilient food adaptation will ensure communities are fed and families thrive, despite climate and economic challenges.
Climate-resilient, regionally adapted seeds contain high levels of genetic diversity within their DNA. The resulting plants & crops from climate-resilient seed can tolerate environmental stresses like drought, flooding, new pests, and rapidly changing growing environments. As the climate changes in unpredictable ways, its important to breed and save seeds that are adapted to extreme growing conditions.
At Laughing Radish, we have started to grow climate-adapted seeds in mimicked extreme environmental conditions, such as in drought (dry gardening), flood, and high weed/pest pressure conditions. As we do this, we save seeds from the strongest and most vigorous plants each year, continually adapting our seeds banks for a climate-resilient future.
The best part of this system is that since we are growing these food-crops for the purpose of producing climate-resilient seeds, after we finish harvesting and collecting the crop’s seeds, we are left with large volumes of fresh organic produce. This produce is them donated to local food centers, where it can be distributed to those who need it the most. Our climate-resilient seeds are literally feeding communities… its a win win scenario!
Seeds are the Solution to bring stable food sovereignty to communities as we enter an unpredictable climate.
If you would like to grow your garden using Laughing Radish’s climate-resilient seed and support our initiatives in Climate-adapted Seed Advocacy and local FREE food donations, please email info@laughingradish.ca
Laughing Radish 