"Sansour notes that the project is called a seed “library” rather than a seed “bank” for a reason. It’s about partnering with people who will grow things now rather than preserving seeds in some safe vault for a future doomsday, because from Sansour’s perspective, “doomsday is already here”.
“I got an email from folks in Gaza asking me what to eat in the wild right now, like, ‘what could be growing outside that we can eat? Because we’re starving.’ That email made me cry, not only because they are starving, but also because it made me understand how the work that we’ve been trying to do is urgent,” said Sansour. Reconnecting to heirloom seeds is also about trying to preserve cultural knowledge about food that’s already growing wild, both in a time of crisis and with the dream that someday it could be enjoyed in a time of thriving, as well.
“Every time we plant a seed or we plant a tree, we are planting it with the hope and intention to have a future,” Sansour said."
Sansour is the founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library,
a project that began in 2016 to conserve Palestinian heritage and
culture by saving heirloom seed varieties and telling the stories and
history from which they emerged.
“The mission of the seed library is to revitalize and conserve a living
archive of our heirloom seeds,” said Sansour. “Not just for Palestine,
but also for the world. The world is in a hospice state and we need all
the different tools and biodiversity we can in order to adapt.”
