Crofting was raising the banner during a recent protest in Europe against legislation which agriculturalists fear will be a tax on traditional farmers to support multinational seed corporations.
Two young members of the Scottish Crofting Federation, Karen MacRae and Susan Garde Pettie, both from Lochalsh, took part in the protest in Strasbourg while they were attending a training course in the French city.
Karen ended up leading the protest holding one end of the demonstrators' banner which read (in French): ‘Free to sow the seeds’. (Karen is on the left of the banner in the picture)She said they had gone on the demonstration to help raise awareness of a new law passed by the French Parliament that is putting a tax on farmers who save their own seeds. The benefits of the tax are to go on agricultural research and development.
