“Seeds help me keep my proximity to all the things I don’t want to forget, through stories, flavors and recipes”

Turkish seed keeper Mehmet Öztan will discuss how seeds connect him to his memories of people, places and time; and how they helped him build relations with people of other cultural backgrounds while he is far away from his homeland and living in rural West Virginia. Öztan will also share his thoughts about racism in seed industry as an immigrant seed professional with a decade of experience in the field.