An interview with Mare
In Croatia
What is your personal connection to seed saving and local seeds?
My approach has always been to grow from seed to seed. From the start, I didn’t prioritize keeping separate varieties—I just worked with what I had. When I began gardening 20 years ago, there were barely any seeds available in stores here. Maybe one or two varieties, three if you were lucky. Online shops were rare and expensive, even ten years ago. That’s how I started with landraces, about five years ago. I’ve always focused on breeding seeds that adapt to the specific conditions of our island—shallow soils, hot dry summers, strong winds.
How is your project structured?
It’s just getting started. I’m currently organizing all the gardeners on the island into a group. Our first meeting is this weekend. The project has two main parts: one is my own garden, which I consider an experimental space for testing growing methods and breeding adaptive seeds. The second is the broader need for more local food production. Right now, 99% of our food is imported.
What successes are you most proud of? Or, what has worked well to engage your community?
I’m really happy that our Serendipity Seed Pack is arriving soon from Mallorca. It’s about two or three kilograms of diverse seeds. I’ll show it to my group of 10 to 15 gardeners as inspiration. I can talk to people as much as I want, but seeing a big table covered in diverse seeds is a whole different experience. People light up when they see it.
Also, we recently received private funding for education, and we’re planning to establish a community seed bank by early next spring. Between now and then, we’ll host small workshops on seed gathering and cleaning—starting April 1st and continuing through next summer.
What are your biggest challenges in seed saving work and local seeds?
Our food system is incredibly fragile. We live on Silba, a small island on the Adriatic coast, part of Croatia. We have just one village, and almost all our food comes from the mainland—except for fish and olive oil. But even fish is scarce now compared to when I was a kid. I’ve seen the difference in just one generation.
Twice in my lifetime, we’ve been cut off from the mainland—during the Balkan Wars in the early ’90s and again during the COVID-19 pandemic. In both cases, food became hard to get. During the war, people used small boats at night to bring back flour and canned goods from other islands. During COVID, ferry access was restricted, and our pier was under construction. At one point, we were down to just two ferry trips a month. It was a close call, and it showed how vulnerable we are.
On top of that, we have a brittle climate. Hot, dry summers. Strong northeastern winds that are very desiccating and bring salt, especially on the exposed side of the island. Soils are shallow. Many seeds from companies just don’t grow unless you use a lot of manure, irrigation, and effort—and even then, some crops just don’t make it. Summers are especially harsh. Everything grows fine in autumn, winter, and spring, but summer is when things start to fail.
Another big challenge is our administrative setup. Even though we’re on an island, we’re officially governed by a mainland city that’s 50 kilometers away. It takes 90 minutes by high-speed catamaran to get there. We don’t have a local body to make decisions. It’s a complicated and frustrating situation.
What resources or support would make your work more effective?
I’d love support with creating materials—like the zines you shared. It’s still early, but I’m definitely counting on that kind of collaboration as we build toward launching our seed bank.
We need funding for workshops, materials, and seed storage. We’ve started receiving private funding for education, which is great. I also think seeing tangible things—like our Serendipity Seed Pack—helps tremendously. Visual tools and shared experiences matter.
We also need education. People here are still using traditional gardening methods that don’t work well with our modern climate. I want to teach no-dig methods, bio-gardening, companion planting, and natural pest control. Most common questions I get are about slugs, snails, and aphids—and my answer is usually: do little or nothing.
What do you think is missing from the current local seeds / seed sovereignty space?
There’s a growing interest, especially since COVID—more gardeners, more seed swaps, more Facebook groups—but at the same time, the legal landscape is becoming harder. In Croatia and across the EU, seed laws require any seed sold online to have a full passport, proving uniformity and germination rate, among other things. This makes it nearly impossible for small seed sellers.
Even community seed banks can get into trouble. Ours used to have an online catalog, but when the person running it started lobbying for fairer seed laws, she was reported and sued. Now it’s only available to members, and ordering happens by email. That’s how most small groups now operate—under the radar, member-based, and informal.
How would you envision an ideal national movement for local seeds? Or, if we’re successful, what has shifted and what does agriculture look like?
We need more locally grown food and stronger seed sovereignty. Ideally, we’d have decentralized seed banks, connected but locally adapted. We’d have easier legal pathways for sharing and selling diverse, non-uniform seeds. And we’d have stronger local governance, so small islands like mine can make decisions based on actual needs.
What would you do if you had a magic wand or had a million dollars?
I’d create a large-scale local food system for the island—gardens, education, seed banks, and community spaces. I’d set up a network of island seed growers working with landraces, adapted to different microclimates. I’d also push for legal reforms around seed sharing and community governance.
How would you want to be involved?
I want to lead locally and stay connected with the broader movement. I want to contribute to community building and education on the island, while staying in touch with other seed activists and learning from them.
Additional reflections
The legal environment for seeds in the EU is increasingly restrictive. Any seed sold online must have a full “passport”—not just phytosanitary certification but also documentation proving uniformity, germination rates, and other standards. This disproportionately affects small-scale growers and seed networks. While physical, in-person seed exchanges are still allowed in small quantities, online distribution—even at cost or through informal networks—is highly regulated. Some seed sellers have tried to get around this by labeling their seeds as “experimental” or “for breeding purposes,” but this only works if they stay small. Once a group gains visibility, legal challenges often follow. This has pushed many community seed efforts underground, into member-only formats where ordering is done through email rather than open websites. Groups like Kokopelli in France have faced repeated lawsuits, while Croatian advocates have had to shut down their online seed sharing altogether. These laws, while meant to ensure quality and safety, end up reinforcing the monopoly of big seed companies and eroding community control over seed diversity and resilience.
Summary Notes:
- Volunteer/Activity Days: Starting gardener group now, first meeting this weekend; workshops on seed cleaning and sharing scheduled from April 1 through next summer.
- Key Insights: Fragility of food systems on islands; adaptation to climate crucial; informal networks are how many seed exchanges now operate due to restrictive laws.
- Potential Collaboration Opportunities: Zine-style educational materials; support for community seed bank; seed-sharing workshops.
- Resources Mentioned: Serendipity Seed Pack, private education funding, community seed bank models, zine examples.
- Follow-Up Needed: Help designing zines and workshop materials; stay in touch regarding community seed bank development.
- Tags: #island-resilience #community-gardening #seed-sovereignty #EU-seed-laws #landraces #climate-adaptation #Croatia #education-workshops