2004 articles

There will be a memorial service for John Seymour, anti-GM campaigner and godfather of Ireland's sustainability movement, at Duncannon Church, Co Wexford, at 7 p.m. on October 14th.

Below is his obituary from The Irish Times.

John Seymour compared the invasion of Ireland by Monsanto's "genetically mutilated" crops to the invasion by the Norman army, and saw it as his duty to resist. As a result, in 1999 he ended up in court at the age of 84 as one of the Arthurstown Seven, saying, "And if I have to go to prison because of it then I will go with a good will, and make the best of it, and when I get out I will try to stop them again!"

Seymour was also revered as an environmentalist and as the godfather of the sustainability movement. He was also known for his sea shanties and his doggerel verse. Here's what he wrote about Irish protests against Monsanto's GM beet:

The GM Fairies got it right
they bashed the Beet in dead of night
Monsanto's game - just one solution
they had to stop this life pollution.
Mutant beet we do not need
Planted in Ireland just for greed.
Those twisted genes for sure would spread
to gardens, fields, and our daily bread.

For more anti-GM verse: http://ngin.tripod.com/poetry.htm

John Seymour's 'Playing It For Laughs, A Book of doggerel' is published by Metanoia Press
ISBN 0 9518381 1 3.
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John Seymour: Hero and godfather to the sustainability movement dies
The Irish Times, 25 September 2004
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/events/index.php

John Seymour, the environmentalist best known as the author of the smallholders' bible, The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency, has died aged 90. Born in England in 1914, he moved to Ireland 24 years ago
and hit the headlines at the age of 84 as one of the Arthurstown Seven, the group which damaged Monsanto's genetically modified crop of sugar beet in 1999.

Seymour's childhood was spent on a farm in Essex dreaming of becoming a cowboy (his mother was American, and his stepfather was the chairman of Quaker Oats).

After agricultural college he went looking for adventure in Africa, where he spent time with the hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari, the Bushmen. At the outbreak of the second World War, he joined the King's African Rifles and fought against the Japanese in Burma. What kept him sane during this time, he said, were six classical records which he would play on a wind-up gramophone.

On returning to Europe, he started a family with his first wife, Sally, and moved into a remote cottage in Sussex without water or electricity. Their early struggles for self-sufficiency were the subject of one of his most popular books, The Fat of the Land.

After moving to a bigger farm in Wales, he wrote The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency, to advise smallholders on everything from how to make hedgerow wine to the best way to butcher a pig. Published in 1976 by Dorling Kindersley, it has sold more than a million copies in 20 countries and is on the shelf of everyone who has ever dreamed of living off the land.

In the foreword, Seymour shared the philosophy he lived by: "I am only one. I can only do what one can do. But what one can do, I will do."

Seymour, along with E.F. Schumacher, is one of the godfathers of the sustainability movement. He hated injustice of any kind and has been described as a freedom fighter for humans, animals and plants. He was far from being a pacifist and passionately believed in people getting "off their backsides" and becoming active.

In 1997 Seymour became a patron of VOICE, the Irish environmental group, and in 1999 he was the first person to jump over the fence to destroy the GM sugar beet. "If a government does not take action
to protect its citizens from serious danger, is it not reasonable that the citizens should take action to protect themselves?" he asked.

Seymour was never afraid to stand up for his beliefs and inspired many young environmentalists. "Never be afraid of being called a crank," he once said. "Look up crank in the dictionary. It's defined as a useful object that starts revolutions."

Even after his "retirement" to a three-acre farm in Killowen, Co Wexford, at the age of 67, he continued his life's work. The self-sufficiency school he set up with partners, Angela Ashe and Will Sutherland continues to attract people from all over the world.

During his life he wrote more than 40 books and made many TV and radio documentaries. During the 1980s he travelled the world for the BBC's Far From Paradise, one of the first environmental series to look at the impact of industrialisation and urbanisation, and in the 1990s his down-to-earth wit and common sense made him a popular contributor to RTE's Nationwide programme.

Seymour, friends recall, will also be remembered for his ability to make friends wherever he went - from a lord in a castle to a drunk in the gutter - to sing sea shanties and to write doggerel verse.

John Seymour died peacefully at his farm in Wales and, as part of a green burial, was wrapped in home-made blankets made from his own sheep. He is survived by three wives, four daughters and one son. A memorial service will be held at Duncannon Church, Co Wexford, at 7 p.m. on October 14th.
John Seymour: born June 12th, 1914; died September 14th, 2004.