FINLEY, Calif. – The California Grange will sponsor Seed Freedom Day at noon on Wednesday, July 1, with multiple events throughout California. 

In Lake County, gardeners and farmers will be gathering in the parking lot of Big Valley Grange to "illegally" exchange seeds. 

At exactly noon, participants statewide will simultaneously step across a literal “line in the sand” with seeds in hand, defying the unfair provisions of AB 2470.

Participants should arrive at the parking lot of the Big Valley Grange between 11:30 and 11:45 a.m. The grange is located at 1510 Big Valley Road in Finley.

Opponents say California Assembly Bill 2470 (AB 2470) is bad law that seriously impairs the right of farmers to share and sell their seeds and gives the secretary of agriculture authority to decide what can and cannot be grown in California counties and cities. 

AB 2470 also makes it illegal for a farmer to “offer for sale, expose for sale, possess for sale, exchange, barter or trade” their seeds beyond an arbitrary three mile limit from their farm to “neighbors,” unless they adhere to a strict and onerous packaging process. 

Under this law a farmer is not allowed to share seeds at a swap meet over three miles from their farm, or exchange seeds with a friend who lives more than three miles down the road, without jumping through the same regulatory hoops as giant commercial seed retailers like Burpee or Monsanto.

“AB 2470 is disguised as a weed abatement measure,” said California Grange President Bob McFarland. “This unjust bill does little more to prevent the spread of weeds, but it certainly exterminates beneficial seed sharing traditions that have been practiced by humankind for more than 10,000 years.”