A DECADE IN REVIEW by GRAIN | 25 Feb 1993 Seedling - February 1993 Over the past ten years of Seedling 's history, what was once known as "the seeds issue" has passed from being a concern of very few individuals on this planet to the highlight of controversy among the 30,000 attendees of the UN Conference on Environment and Development -- the "Earth" Summit -- in Rio last June. To a large extent, the only progress traceable through Seedling 's trajectory over the past decade is the enormous growth of public awareness about the importance and causes of genetic erosion in world agriculture. The real work to effectively reverse this threat to global food security, to implement equitable and integrated strategies for genetic resources management, and to put farmers at the wheel of agricultural development, and their own destinies, still lies ahead of us. Over the past ten years of Seedling 's history, what was once known as "the seeds issue" has passed from being a concern of very few individuals on this planet to the highlight of controversy among the 30,000 attendees of the UN Conference on Environment and Development -- the "Earth" Summit -- in Rio last June. To a large extent, the only progress traceable through Seedling 's trajectory over the past decade is the enormous growth of public awareness about the importance and causes of genetic erosion in world agriculture. The real work to effectively reverse this threat to global food security, to implement equitable and integrated strategies for genetic resources management, and to put farmers at the wheel of agricultural development, and their own destinies, still lies ahead of us.
'SEEDLING IS NOT A FULL-GROWN PLANT!' by GRAIN | 15 Feb 1993 Seedling - February 1993 In January 1993, GRAIN staffers and Seedling co-editors Henk Hobbelink and Renée Vellvé sat down with Pat Mooney of RAFI to look back together over the first decade of Seedling. From a sporadic two-page telex written by Pat for 30 close collaborators in 1982, Seedling has become an internationally recognised platform for NGO networking on plant genetic resources and biotechnology. Since Pat was the first publisher of Seedling, before it was passed on to Henk in 1984, it was only appropriate for us to review together the history of the journal, the history of the issues it reflects, and the history of the NGO struggle it has served. In January 1993, GRAIN staffers and Seedling co-editors Henk Hobbelink and Renée Vellvé sat down with Pat Mooney of RAFI to look back together over the first decade of Seedling. From a sporadic two-page telex written by Pat for 30 close collaborators in 1982, Seedling has become an internationally recognised platform for NGO networking on plant genetic resources and biotechnology. Since Pat was the first publisher of Seedling, before it was passed on to Henk in 1984, it was only appropriate for us to review together the history of the journal, the history of the issues it reflects, and the history of the NGO struggle it has served.