End of Year Update - Support Cultivate Oregon for Giving Tuesday
As 2019 comes to a close and you consider year-end gifts, our Steering Committee asks that you think of Cultivate Oregon. Despite our small size, we’ve stayed the course and remain focused on protecting and growing Oregon’s specialty seed industry, especially the organic sector, since seeds are foundational to our food system. We also continue to advocate for regenerative systems of agriculture in conjunction with our coalition partners. Some of our accomplishments include:
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Over the last couple of years, Cultivate Oregon made significant progress in Salem in terms of pushing legislative and agency policy that protects organic seed stocks from genetically engineered (GE) contamination, and better supports Oregon's organic industry.
- While we aren’t actively working on legislation in the 2020 session, we will be monitoring the legislature and have already been laying the groundwork for 2021, including working on a bill with the Oregon State Grange.
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We helped shine a national lens on threats to Oregon’s seed industry by providing background in this Civil Eats story.
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Cultivate Oregon will also be presenting at the 10th Organic Seed Conference this coming February along with our friends from Our Family Farms, as well as other seed activists from around the country. The panel will discuss legislative and other work to protect organic seed.
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Cultivate Oregon is one of a handful of plaintiffs challenging the Trump administration over the removal of the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices Rule. The case is still ongoing and we’ll have more updates in 2020.
- We also look forward to hosting more community events like our past seed swaps, grange dances, and movie nights, and are currently working on resources to help our supporters better engage with the local food community.
Cultivate Oregon would like to thank all of you who have supported our work in the past through financial contributions, and by responding to our Action Alerts. We can’t do this work without you and hope that you will continue to join us in protecting seed stocks in Oregon and beyond, and fighting for organic agriculture.