Thank you! 🙌
Your #SeedWeek2026 tales, posts, and generous donations have raised £20,000 to strengthen seed sovereignty across our isles. We are grateful to every single one of you who got involved this year.
Accounting for 9 of every 10 bites we eat, seed holds tremendous potential for the future of our food and beyond. Thanks to your support, a colourful, diverse, nutritious, delicious, resilient, just, life-supporting food and farming system is closer to our reach 🌾
Catch up on anything you missed on our grid or through the link in our bio 👉️
We look forward to sharing more positive seed tales in the months to come, powered by the money raised this week!
👉️ Just a few hours left to DOUBLE your donation to the future of our food system! @biggiveorg ’s Earth Raise campaign closes at midday on 29 April ⏰️
Every £1 donated contributes towards our #SeedWeek2026 goal of raising £20,000 to put seed back in growers’ hands, by:
🌾 Reclaiming the skills and wisdom lost to corporate seed production with trainings in seed politics, practice, and production
🫘 Growing our animated network of seed guardians, dedicated to sowing diverse, resilient, regionally-adapted crops with events, plant trials, breeding programmes, and working groups
🌱 Strengthening our collaborative stance against seed giants by supporting market gardeners to diversify into community and commercial seed production
🌸 Refinding the joy that comes from cultivating a personal and cultural connection to locally-produced food
In her seed story, our Future Seed Resilience Coordinator, Holly, emphasises the holistic benefits that come from increasing the diversity of our seed for climate resilience.
“There’s so much joy to be found in diversity”
➡️ Share Holly’s words (the full version is also available through the link in our bio) to help us meet our goal by midday today!
24 hours remaining to DOUBLE your donation towards a climate-resilient, diverse, grower-led seed system 👉️ follow the link in our bio to help us raise £20,000 for the future of our food, fields, families, and more-than-human friends
As corporate food production has grown, we’ve been stripped of some of our humanness. Regional varieties, heritage crops, and time-honoured recipes bind us to each other, the Earth, and those we share her with.
Reweaving ourselves into our food cultures will catalyse our transition towards a more sustainable food system. And what better place to start than the beginning? The seed.
Placing seed back in the hands of growers allows us to grow the resilient fields and communities we need to flourish in unpredictable times, both climatic and societal.
➡️ Follow the link in our bio to read the full article and join us on our shared path to seed sovereignty. Every #SeedWeek2026 donation is kindly DOUBLED by @biggiveorg ’s Earth Raise 2026 until midday on 29 April
👉️ Follow the link in our bio to DOUBLE your donation to tomorrow’s food system, thanks to @biggiveorg ’s Earth Raise campaign, running from 22 - 29 April 2026
“Sharing seeds in informal ways creates connection with each other and connection with the lands”
Louise, our former Scotland Seed Sovereignty Coordinator, now supporting our Wales network, tells us how these landrace parsnip seeds help her reflect on seed sovereignty.
This #SeedWeek2026, we’re raising £20,000 to put seed back in the hands of growers; reclaiming our future from extractive corporations.
The patented seeds sold by ‘big ag’ cannot be saved and passed on, restricting the seeds’ ability to adapt over time and inhibiting our own sharing of food. By transitioning to a grower-led seed system, we can tap into the climate and community resilience that a seed sovereign system can offer.
➡️ Share Louise’s seed story (the full version is also available through the link in our bio) to help us spread the word ⭐️
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🎥 Alberto Balazs
👉️ Follow the link in our bio to DOUBLE your donation to tomorrow’s food system, thanks to @biggiveorg ’s Earth Raise campaign, running from 22 - 29 April 2026
“Food has been one of the ways I’ve found home wherever I’ve moved to”
Randa, our former Southern England Seed Sovereignty Coordinator (who has recently moved overseas), shares a story of her relationship to the broad bean and speaks of the connection between biodiversity and cultural diversity she has found in her travels.
Her words remind us to keep sharing regional seeds, recipes, and stories to nurture our sense of belonging.
This #SeedWeek2026, the agroecology and seed sovereignty movements are banding together to give seed the recognition it deserves and raise £20,000 to put our future back in the hands of the growers who are keeping heritage seeds and their stories alive.
➡️ Join us! Share Randa’s seed story (the full version is also available through the link in our bio) to help seed sovereignty bloom beyond its usual corner of the internet 🌱
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🎥 Alberto Balazs
In reclaiming a diverse and resilient food system, through the very nature of working with seed, we find ourselves being rethreaded into lost communities and cooperative ways of working.
This #SeedWeek2026, we’re raising £20,000 to place our future back in the hands of growers: reclaiming the seed, food, and community sovereignty lost to corporate food production.
👉️ Follow the link in our bio to DOUBLE your donation to tomorrow’s food system, thanks to @biggiveorg ’s Earth Raise campaign, running from 22 - 29 April 2026
Poppy and Seth of @dogoodthingsfarm , along with countless members of the seed sovereignty movement, have experienced this phenomenon of reconnection first-hand. Far from our current societal ways of being, these levels of cooperation, while natural and almost magnetic once the work takes hold, take a little remembering.
Katie, Gaia’s Wales Seed Sovereignty Coordinator, is travelling to Bhutan, Nepal and India to learn from their thriving ecosystems of agricultural cooperatives for her recently awarded @ChurchillFellowship . By asking questions about the binding ingredients of seed cooperatives in other parts of the world, she hopes to better understand how to feed a cooperative seed movement here.
➡️ Read the full article and DOUBLE your donation to seed and community sovereignty through the link in our bio
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📸 1 & 14 by @alexanderparkynsmith
📷 2 - 13 by @dogoodthings_farm@dogoodthings_film
#SeedWeek2026 - it’s been great working with the gaiafoundation on this. If you can support their Earth Raise fundraiser, they are raising money to support putting seeds back in growers hands. 🙌 🌱
Sharing this post / creating your own post on seed saving to help spread the word would be great too!
👉️ Follow the link in our bio to DOUBLE your donation to tomorrow’s food system, thanks to @biggiveorg ’s Earth Raise campaign, running from 22 - 29 April 2026
“What’s blown my mind about them is realising that of course they’re seeds, and they grow into crops, and they’re really important in and of themselves, but also they’re not just seeds and crops. They’re connections to people’s history and heritage and culture.”
Katie, our Wales Seed Sovereignty Coordinator, shares her story of a seed that is important to her: the Welsh Ceirch Du black oat.
The profit-driven corporations that control the majority of today’s seed are wiping out these personal, cultural connections to food and farming.
This #SeedWeek2026, the agroecology and seed sovereignty movements are banding together to give seed the recognition it deserves and raise £20,000 to put our future back in the hands of growers, not multinational giants.
➡️ Join us! Share Katie’s seed story (the full version is also available through the link in our bio) to help seed sovereignty bloom beyond its usual corner of the internet 🌱
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🎥 Alberto Balazs
We're super excited to be bringing TWO new Seed Sovereignty Coordinators into the Gaia team 👉️ Apply now via @charityjob through the link in our bio
If you're a dedicated seed guardian looking to use your plant wisdom and collaboration skills to strengthen the growing seed network in the UK, we would love to hear from you 🌾
These new regionally-based roles will cover the south and west of England between them, working closely with seed team colleagues based in northern England, Wales and Scotland to nurture and connect emerging grassroots developments in UK seed sovereignty. As such, we are seeking two candidates who are regionally located and willing to travel as required.
Both roles are remote and 21 hours per week, perfect for growers looking to keep their hands in the soil while also getting the opportunity to contribute to regional, national, and international food systems transformation.
Leave any questions for the team below 👇️
Good luck!!
Coming up on the 21st of February, a chance for those in Cornwall to connect among the seed network locally!
We’ll be meeting at Eco Park! 11.30am - 3.30pm
bring your own lunch (vegan as per venue’s policy)
Sign up and info at link in bio
“Seeds hold the future”
Join the seed sovereignty movement - a network of wonderful people standing for community, food justice, growers’ rights, flavour, nutrition, biodiversity, and climate resilience:
🫘 Buy, sow, save, and share open-pollinated seed (who is joining us for our seed swap at @weareprimary tomorrow??)
🫛 Gain knowledge and skills in seed politics, practice, and production 👉 Applications for our Year-Long Seed Training close Monday 9 Feb (follow the link in our bio to apply)
🌱 Engage with seed groups, hubs, libraries, growers, and networks ➡️ Explore our interactive map to find your local seed community
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🎥 Alexander Parkyn-Smith
Applications are OPEN for our Seed Sovereignty Programme’s 2026 ‘Year Long Seed Training’ course
As a course graduate, you’ll have the skills and expertise you need to produce excellent quality seed to sell or share within your community.
👉 Follow the link in our bio to apply if you’re in the UK and are one (or more) of the following:
🌱 currently growing in a commercial capacity
🌱 the manager of a community growing space
🌱 have some years of growing experience
and have access to space to grow two crops from seed to seed 💚
Our training is delivered through online webinars and in-person site visits, featuring incredible guests and opportunities to build your seed networks.
➡️ Find full details linked in our bio
Leave questions for your regional coordinator below 👇️
@scotseedsov
@walesseedsov
@southernseedsov
@northernseedsov
