You are invited to go “to” Kenya with us for the evening! Join your friends and fellow Rotarians in the Eugene Metropolitan Rotary Club – tonight – Tuesday, March 4th, for an evening with seed-saving, food security, and small-scale farming experts.
Daniel Wanjama and John Kariuki from the Gilgil Rotary Club will be at The Davis Restaurant at 5 pm to visit and make friends before sharing their presentation at 6 pm Pacific.
All are welcome for this very special event.
You can read their bios below. You can also listen to Daniel Wanjama’s interview on PBS International’s Plant Breeding Stories in East Africa.
Daniel Wanjama is the coordinator and a steering committee member of the Global Open Source Seed System Initiative (GOSSI). He is also a council member of the Intercontinental Network of Organic Farmers’ Organizations (INOFO).”I grew up in rural Kenya where everyone in the village was a small-scale farmer. Childhood hunger triggered my interest to study agriculture later. I have close to 20 years’ experience providing advisory services to small-scale farmers on seeds and agroecology. I founded the Seed Network in Kenya 14 years ago and my interaction with traditional seed keepers has made me a convert of seed systems managed by farmers. I follow the Agikuyu traditional spiritual practice. We believe a seed is life and life comes from God and that seeds should be commonly accessible to all and that no one should have exclusive rights over seeds. I consider the current practice of patenting seeds evil.”
John Kariuki is a member of Slow Food International council (representing East Africa) with a deep understanding of the complexity of the world, the centrality of food to all cultures and the integral role that small-scale farmers play in feeding the world. John has coordinated Slow Food Kenya since 2010, overseeing the development and implementation of a range of educational and advocacy-related projects. A champion of regional integration, he has played a significant role in the development of Slow Food East Africa. His years of professional experience includes representing Youth and Africa at Slow Food International, administration and coordination of development projects in sustainable agriculture, education and socio-cultural sector with the aim of preserving food biodiversity, sustainable food production systems and cultural identities of local communities.
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