SEED SYMPOSIUM SET FOR LATER THIS WEEK.

Byline: THE NEW MEXICAN 

The New Mexican

Nationally known mycologist Paul Stamets will talk about the fungus among us Friday and Saturday at Tesuque Pueblo during the Third Annual Symposium for Sustainable Food and Seed Sovereignty.

The symposium features several well-known agricultural experts who will talk about how to propagate and save traditional seeds, foster the next generation of farmers and integrate indigenous knowledge. The conference begins at sunrise each day.

Stamets believes mushrooms can save the world, and he's spent 30 years studying them to prove it. Fungi have medicinal properties, repair damaged soils and clean up contamination. Stamets lately has focused his efforts on saving ancient mushroom strains found in the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest.

"Waiting for science and society to wake up to the importance of these ancient old growth fungi is perilously slow and narrow in vision," Stamets wrote on the Web site for his company, Fungi Perfecti. "The meager attempts thus far may be too little, too late. Unless we collectively pool our resources, the mushroom genome will become increasingly threatened, and therefore, our very existence may be at stake."

Other speakers at the symposium include Percy Schmeiser, a longtime canola farmer who fought the agri-business company Monsanto all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court.

Monsanto sued Schmeiser for patent infringement because the company found its herbicide-resistant canola growing in Schmeiser's field; Schmeiser said the seed had blown there and counter-sued Monsanto for not preventing its genetically modified seed from contaminating his fields.

Galen D. Knight will deliver a keynote speech on integrating indigenous wisdom, nutrition, environment and immune support.

Farmer, Brahman priest and teacher Ram Prasad Sapkota of Nepal also will present at the conference.

The Native Earth Biocultural Council and Tesuque Pueblo is hosting the symposium. The event will be held at the Pueblo of Tesuque's Intergenerational Center.

A light breakfast and full lunch will be served each day and the tow meals are included in the price of registration.

For more information and registration information, see www.foodandseedconference.info, or call Emigdio Ballon at 955-7723 or Rick Vigil, tribal leader, at 955-7709.

Ballon will talk about the symposium on Good Day New Mexico, Channel 4 at 11 a.m. Monday.

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