I’m sure you, like I, have been watching the conflict between Israel and Hamas with horror over the past week. It feels insufficient to post a ‘our hearts and prayers are with the people impacted’ statement, though of course our hearts and our prayers absolutely are with everyone – among them, seed industry colleagues and friends – who have had their lives turned terrifyingly upside down since a week ago Saturday.
As we do each time a major disaster happens somewhere in the world, we at Seed World Group have spent significant time in the last week wondering how we can thoughtfully and meaningfully respond. We are honored to be the go-to source for seed industry information and take seriously our privileged role of providing perspective. While we are not in the business of covering all the new stories of the world, it feels wrong to not speak directly to this conflict, especially as it is one that impacts so many in our global seed industry family.
What we know so far is that the humanitarian disaster unfolding before our eyes is impacting hundreds of thousands, with seed industry colleagues and friends among them. The varied ripple effects of this war are being felt around the world including, quite likely, in your home and workplace as they are in my home and workplace.
Our readers look to us for guidance on issues impacting the seed industry. What guidance can we provide on this issue? I offer the same that we sent to our internal team last week:
Our commitment to diversity and inclusion means that we value everyone’s right to their opinions and beliefs. That said, we believe informed knowledge and good information is the key to well-founded perspective and, ultimately, democracy. Understanding the complexities of the Israel-Palestine conflict allows informed, respectful dialogue and open communication, especially in such politically treacherous conflict. To that end, we suggest these resources that provide varying insight into this conflict:
