VIDEO: Seeds for Preservation and Perseverance with Amyrose Foll

Food sovereignty is the right to choose what food to eat, where it comes from, and how it is grown. In the past five centuries, native foodways were used as control, a weapon to wage war on our population, and more recently as a blight on our health. By taking control of our seed, in some cases bringing varieties back from the brink of extinction, and growing our own fresh fruits and vegetables, we are not only preserving our cultural heritage and revitalizing our foodways, but becoming a testament to the resilience of our ancestor’s legacy of farming. Native people have faced disassociation with their traditional foods by ways of environmental degradation, legislation preventing traditional harvesting, relocation to areas not familiar and different from traditional homelands, and climate change. Gardening can be a great way to connect back to your culture no matter where you come from or your walk of life.