We are not alone in our struggle to achieve food security in the face of climate change. We are all in this together, growing food in partnership with diverse seeds, breeds, soil microbes, pollinators and other beneficial insects. But we need to acknowledge our interdependence with these other lives, because our fates are intertwined. In a sense, we are married to them, cohabitate with them and cannot physically or spiritually live separate from them. That is why I suggested that everyone at the 2013 Seed Savers Exchange Campout in Decorah, Iowa stand up to renew their vows to be a good partner and steward to the seeds and other lives that can help us survive such unpredictable times. Here are those vows, so that you too may renew your covenant with this blessed earth:

I, (name), a gardener, farmer, seed saver, and eater,

wish to renew our sacred vows

to take care, love and serve

the astonishing diversity of life on this earth.

Through sickness and in health (I bet you knew that line was coming),

in times of crisis and times of joy,

to sow the seeds of food justice,

to sow the seeds of food security,

to sow the seeds of food democracy,

to sow the seeds of true food sovereignty,

through our own actions and our own eating patterns

so that we may all eat what we have truly sown.

I reaffirm our covenant with this earth,

to humbly be one more way that seeds themselves regenerate into more seeds to nourish all of us.

Love one another and go and sow in peace.

For more from food and farming activist Gary Paul Nabhan, visit GaryNabhan.com

Gary Nabhan's E-book Where Our Food Comes From is now only $3.99 for a limited time!

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