"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
A crash course in changing the world.
EVOKATION: Gratitude Garden Outline
The Place:
The Gratitude Gardens will be a global network, so much of the 'place' will be virtual. We have already registered www.gratitudegardens.org, and that will be the location for our online network. This network will be free to use, and will provide mapping functionality for sharing locations, links to resources organized globally, regionally, nationally, and locally, and a seed database through a partnership with plants for the future and seed savers.org.
Gratitude Gardens will also be physical locations where participants grow heirloom and landrace edible and useful plants. They will be living seed banks, community spaces, and social enterprise incubators, providing raw materials for the enterprises of the founders and their community while safeguarding and adapting precious genetic stock for this and future generations.
Anyone will be able to plant a garden of any size, but they will all be encouraged to participate online in sharing information and resources before planting so as to ensure that future Gratitude Gardeners will be able to benefit from their efforts.
The Challenge. What will you aim to change, and for whom? Highlight what is the need that you perceive and who will benefit from this change.
There are huge issues facing the world, both for the loss of biodiversity in our food production system and piracy and theft of indigenous knowledge. The long term effects of genetically modified foods have yet to be established, particularly terminator genes and traits produced with cellular invasion methods.
There are many advocates for these issues already, and the Gratitude Gardens don't claim to solve the problem or replace their efforts. However, the one thing that is clear is not enough people are farming sustainably, and many plant cultivars are in danger of dying out. In response to this we've decided to crowdsource the problem, and create a global network of people who research their agricultural heritage and then put it into practice.
The Idea. Your solution – what is the action, product, service, project, change that you will initiate? Tell us how will your idea will succeed where others have failed.
We will create a global competition, inspired by Urgent Evoke. Participants will log onto the website and create a profile. They will be awarded badges for filling out basic information, but once they start researching local seeds they will be entered into monthly contests.
Those who find and share information about new strains of plants will share them with the community. Pictures and wiki entries will doc**ent their discoveries. Partners at Seed Savers will help ensure that these valuable genetics will be safeguarded and not patented by greedy multinationals.
Participants will also be encouraged to identify local, national, and regional organizations that support these type of conservation and sustainable agriculture projects. They will post links to websites, addresses and phone numbers, so that future aspiring gratitude gardens can access that information and support/be supported by these groups.
All of this information will be open source, and the quantity and quality of information provided will be a****sed by the community in a manner similar to how Urgent Evoke functions. The highest rated content will earn monthly prizes, such as free seeds and equipment from Seed Savers.org.
Aside from the virtual community, participants will also be planting individual and community gardens. Not all of the garden must be dedicated to heirloom and landrace seeds, but at least 25% of it must be to qualify for the garden competition.
On a monthly basis, gardeners in specific areas will qualify for grants from a large grantmaking institution concerned about global and regional hunger. Particularly, areas at risk of losing huge quantities of genetic material such as South Asia and Africa will be eligible to grants from organizations like the Gates Foundation. Monthly cash prizes will go to the best projects to encourage more participation and expansion and outreach. Efforts will be made to make it as meritorious and equitable a system as possible, but participants will be made aware that some targeted grants are only available to certain regions due to the magnitude of their need.
The Money. What would you do with your first US$1,000 given or invested in support of your vision?
The first $1000 will go to web development. The domain has been registered, and we have a wiki up, but purchasing a pro ning account and contracting a web designer to create the Gratitude Garden website. A portion might also be set aside for the first few prizes to ensure that even the founding members can be incentivized to participate.
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Comment by Nick Heyming on May 15, 2010 at 4:48am
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Whats LBS?
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Comment by Michele Baron on May 15, 2010 at 4:59am
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hi nick,
saw your comment on my edits of patricios OUR Farms evokation. he asked for help, I edited, that's all. his real address is http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/our-module-our-evokation-...
and I had no other way to return it-- too big for message and I have no email for patricio (or you).
I don't have skype in the US either, but would very much like to help on your Gratitude Gardens project-- you have been in Peru, so couldn't contact you. my gmail is norabelehcim@gmail.com and I would be happy to help on GGardens, within my skill sets (not computer tech) , Michele
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Comment by Patricio Buenrostro-Gilhuys on May 15, 2010 at 9:48pm
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Great Evokation Nick!!! I like the way you can express a complex innovative idea in a simple clear manner. Best of lucks and hope to be collaborating together!!!
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I'm a bit concerned about intellectual property rights and this idea. What would be the best way to safeguard the indigenous people's knowledge without having unscrupulous organizations patenting them without their permission?
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Comment by Jeremy Laird Hogg on May 17, 2010 at 1:26am
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@Nick - Making board games, it was once suggested to me to mail myself my game and leave it unopened. That way, if someone stole my idea in my solicitation phase, my time stamped game would go a long way as evidence that the game rules/concept were mine. My suggester called it the poor man's patent.
I'm not a lawyer and never had a problem with my board game, but that seemed like sound advice. Perhaps you could look into how well that actually works to secure intellectual property. And then look into the viability of time stamping the indigenous knowledge with its source when it enters your site somehow. Or even do the self mailing idea and keep physical files of the intellectual property in unopened, stamped packages.
Again, maybe this is a naive idea, but I was convinced by the idea of it being time stamped by a respectable third party- the national post office.
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Comment by MAK on May 18, 2010 at 3:09am
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Nick -
Great to see the final outline of the Evokation :) I just got back from Earthsong Organic Farm and Retreat this weekend, and there is more than enough land we can dedicate to the Global Gratitude Garden. In fact, I learned soo much about the native wild edibles at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Stuart, VA right by the Fairystone National Park that I made sure to record it all on video to share with you all (I couldn't keep up with writing down all the info about the indigenous plants from your "first steps". They started agro-forestry, with a permaculture inspired fruit orchard - @Ursula, thanks to you I understood what a guild meant when they explained the juxtaposition of certain plants :)
Anywho, the farm is on its way to becoming USDA organic certified and wild harvesting certification - perhaps, I can provide information to others on the website guidelines and processes of different certification? (Regulations are my forte)
Which for the intellectual property - you would need to make sure to include the following statement:
"The material contained in this doc**entation is proprietary and confidential to ______?_____(Global Gratitude Gardens, Inc.). No material wh*** and in part contained in this doc**ent may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior consent of copyright owner."
At the bottom of each page you need to include either Copyright or the c in a circle symbol 2010 (the year) and organization name with All rights reserved - i.e.
(Copyright © 2010 Global Gratitude Gardens. All Rights Reserved)
You can go to the far extent of registering your copyrighted information. Patenting would be a different process.
Ooh also made contact with southern seed exposure in partnering this season to save some heirloom varieties they just planted :)
I like this type of gardening!
much love and peace,
'elle
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@ 'elle, great info. good to see you back and hear all is well. congratulations on seeds. @nick continued good evoking. mi'
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Awesome 'elle! Great stuff, appreciate the copyright info. We also need to come up with a strategy for protecting the plant varieties that are identified in this project from predatory patenting. I've been in some discussions with experts on the issue, but I'd appreciate your ideas as well.
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Comment by Nicholas Nagao on May 19, 2010 at 4:53pm
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Nick, to help promote the use of new technology and new techniques, can I suggest you make a theme for each competition...like the best use of solar technology in a garden, the best rooftop garden, the best use of permaculture ideas....etc.
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Good suggestion Nicholas! We're finishing up the video and final draft right now. So far we have a dozen collaborators around the world on four continents!
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