Amsterdam Reclaims its Green Spaces… with Sunflower Seeds

Located in the green backyard of Nieuw-West, the Fruittuin van West will once again host the weekend-long Reclaim the Seeds festival on March 15th and 16th, packed with hands-on workshops on seeds and soil, intriguing talks by experts on urban farming and community leaders in the environmental justice movement. You can expect beautiful greenery, a local artisanal market, live music, the odd chicken or pig roaming free, and a cafe where you can cosy up with a warm cup of tea before heading back into the fresh air.

Community and empowerment in green spaces
Reclaim the Seeds aims to raise awareness about the failures of our food systems and present alternatives, like regenerative and sustainable farming. The festival started as a way for local farmers to exchange seeds with each other, back in 2012. The exchanges combat seed patenting by big corporations that develop new types of seeds and sell them to farmers. These seeds may be more resilient to diseases, and harsh weather conditions, or may yield bigger vegetables, but there’s a catch: farmers have to repurchase these seeds annually, and may not save and reuse the previous year’s seeds. On top of the restrictive financial aspect, the use of these seeds harms the environment: variety in vegetables, fruits, and herbs declines in favour of one specific type of ‘efficient’ plant, and as seed diversity decreases, entire ecosystems are destroyed, making it harder for urban and rural green spaces to flourish.

Ann Doherty, an organiser at the urban food-growing collective Cityplot, explains how green spaces in cities, especially ones used for food production, are important. These gardens and farms foster a communal feeling that is missing in many urban neighbourhoods. Whether you are gardening or just sitting for a coffee, these spaces provide people with a place to make new connections, and a way to get their hands dirty and to be more in touch with their surroundings. Another plus side is the de-stressing effect of greenery: Ann has noticed that people often leave the gardens with more energy, “feeling rooted in a community”. The gardens also help reduce the gap between harvesting and eating, they allow people to be less reliant on food systems that underpay farmers and negatively impact the environment. Overall, practices like composting and seed-saving encourage circularity and sustainability and “empower people to be more independent from a system that has failed them,” Ann adds.

The Sunflower Protest
One such area in Amsterdam is the Lutkemeerpolder, hectares of free green space, and home to various community-organised gardens such as Pluk!, Voedselpark, and the Stadsgroenteboer. The land, which Iris Poels, a farmer, and activist, calls “the last piece of fertile farmland in Amsterdam”, is now planned to be completely covered in concrete and big grey warehouses, making up a massive distribution center between the airport and the city centre. Despite the social and environmental importance of these few hectares of land in Nieuw-West, the municipality has ignored calls to stop construction in the area, so activists and farmers have found other ways to resist.

Catherina Giskes, a volunteer and community leader there, initiated the sunflower seed-saving project. The idea is to distribute seeds from dried sunflowers, harvested from Lutkemeer last year, all across the city, and replant them to draw attention to disappearing urban green space. The project is in essence community-lead: from the initial steps of sorting seeds to planning where the seedlings will be planted in each neighbourhood, the process is a group effort. Seed sorting takes a while, as each dried flower can contain around 1000 seeds, with only about 200 being usable for replanting. This is a communal activity at heart: sharing stories or just listening while doing something with your hands that connects you to nature, to yourself, and to the moment. Although the next steps are better done with the guidance of some skilled gardeners, anyone can lend a hand: each small neighbourhood or wijk in Amsterdam has to plan where the seedlings they receive would flourish best, along their roads, in their community gardens, in small green patches on squares.

Iris explains the sunflowers also hold a symbolic meaning, as the soil they grew in is as old as van Gogh himself: the communities at Lutkemeer hope that this seed protest will draw as much attention to plants and soil as van Gogh’s painted sunflowers and that our green spaces be treated with as much respect as his artworks. So even if you don’t consider yourself a gardener, but would love to see these beautiful flowers blooming in your wijk this summer, join the Sunflower Protest’s workshops at Reclaim the Seeds: where you can learn all about planting techniques, soil, and the social and environmental importance of the movement!
And, there’s plenty to do before the Reclaim the Seeds festival!

Join Reclaim the Seeds and Zonnebloem Protest’s workshops at the 2.Dh5 festival on March 1st and 2nd
Take a look at Zonnebloem Protest’s agenda for seed sorting activities and more
Go for a stroll around Lutkemeerpolder with Iris’ Lutkemeer Ommetje tour every second Sunday of the month
Support Amsterdam’s free green spaces in your day-to-day life, check out Cityplot’s online resources

“Let’s flower Amsterdam!” as Iris would say... And see you (latest) on March 15th at Fruittuin van West!