Our Story so Far

The Seed Savers' Network was founded in 1986 to preserve the diversity of our cultural plants. Our strategies have included writing and producing three books, including the publication of a best selling handbook on the subject in Australia, a biannual newsletter and a one hour documentary; running a seed exchange, a seed multiplication garden and a seed bank; organising conferences, frequent events and workshops and spawning over a hundred local seed networks around Australia and many internationally.

Our work is community based: Seed Savers is funded by sales of books, posters and DVDs, our supporters and generous gifts. We function on very limited resources, with the help of volunteers. The Seed Savers Handbook generates a third of our income.
Some of our achievements

  • Between 1986 and 2008 Seed Savers received over 9,000 vegetable seed accessions. We recorded and stored them in our seed bank, multiplying in Seed Savers' gardens about one third of them, and sending out the rest for multiplication; when saved again and again in any one environmental conditions these varieties adapt and become a new variance of the former varieties therefore recreating biodiversity;
  • Over 15,000 people have been directly involved with Seed Savers;
  • Several hundred collected, multiplied and offered seeds and other planting material in our Spring Newsletter from 1986 to 2008. On average there were 1200 varieties offered each year.
  • Seed Savers distributed 500,000 free packets of original seeds grown by members of Seed Savers. The seed packets were filled each year by volunteers from the Tamborine Mountain Seed Savers and Banora Point Garden Club near Tweed Heads. Now all seeds have been redistributed to Local Seed Networks for multiplication and possible adaptation;
  • There have been twenty Seed Savers annual conferences held from 1988 to 2008. See locations below;
  • We have written and published three books, "The Seed Savers' Handbook", "Local Seed Network Manual" and "Seed to Seed Food Gardens in Schools"; Order online.
  • As of early 2011 we have sold 32,000 copies of "The Seed Savers' Handbook' in Australia and had it translated into French, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Basque and Macedonian; Order online.
  • We produced a one-hour documentary "Our Seeds: Seeds Blong Yumi" in 2008, distributed 1000 free copies and as of 2011, sold another 1000 online. Order online.
  • Seed Savers' has helped to establish Seed Networks in a number of other countries including Afghanistan, Cambodia, East Timor, Ecuador, India, Japan, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, and PNG.
  • We have trained sixty-eight interns in Seed Savers gardens, twenty from Australia most of whom went on to work in overseas projects; and the rest from overseas.

See a full list of our international work www.seedsavers.net/our-global-reach
Support for Seed Savers' work
We work on seed issues both within Australia and in twenty other countries. As spokespeople for local and traditional varieties of food crops we speak up for bio-cultural matters, the genetic basis of tomorrow's food and biodiverse food growing systems. If you would like to support our work, you can pay AUD$30 per year or AUD$50 for two years. Your payment supports Seed Savers to continue these activities:
• Register and support Local Seed Networks
• Promote seed saving within Australia and internationally
• Support and establish seed saving organisations in more than twenty countries
• Campaign about food issues and biocultural matters
• Produce film clips to promote seed saving
• Maintain this website
I would like to support Seed Savers' work.
 
Twenty Seed Savers Annual Conferences
 
Every year from 1988 to 2008 we held a conference, usually at the end of October. It was a roving experience with the conference held at our base in Nimbin and later Byron Bay every second year and elsewhere the alternate year.
Held on a weekend there were speakers in the morning and practical workshops in the afternoon with a field trip to seed saving gardens on the second or third day. Something like a mini-Permaculture event, topics went wider than seed saving, reflecting how the organisation has broad and intricate aims within diverse contexts.
In NSW it was held in Nimbin, Byron Bay (both several times, usually the odd years), Taree, Katoomba, Sydney, Bowral and Gulgong near Mudgee
In Qld it was held in Brisbane and Mount Tamborine
In SA it was held in Adelaide.
In Vic in Melbourne.
List of locations and posters by year
1988 Nimbin, NSW

1989 Nimbin, NSW

1990 in Taree, NSW

1991 Byron Bay, NSW
1992 in Mount Tamborine, Qld
1993 Byron Bay, NSW
1994 Katoomba, Blue Mountains, NSW
         
1995 Byron Bay, NSW
1996 Grovely TAFE, Brisbane, Qld
1997 Byron Bay, NSW
1998 Hurstbridge, Vic
   
1999 Byron Bay, NSW
2000 Sydney, NSW

2001 Byron Bay, NSW
2002 Adelaide, SA

2003 Byron Bay, NSW
2004 Bowral, southern highlands near Sydney

 
 
2005 Byron Bay, NSW
2007 March, Melbourne, Vic
2008 March, Gulgong near Mudgee, NSW
 

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