The welfare of everyone involved in Seed Saving group activities is important to all of us.
One of the main ways to ensure everyone’s welfare is to build a safety conscious attitude into the culture of your group. People are often dismissive of what they perceive as ‘officiousness’ or over-the-top unnecessary worrying.
Seed saving is not a particularly risky activity but a few simple things can make things safer for those involved in group activities:
- If heavy items have to be moved then make sure two or three people do it together. This quickly becomes the norm for a group if it is setup as the way things are always done.
- Having protective equipment such as spare gloves and dust masks can make seed processing less uncomfortable. Otherwise you might find allergy prone people avoiding processing lettuce seed, for example.
Having a plan is written evidence that your group has considered the risks and is taking appropriate actions to minimise those risks for participants.
Your organising committee should regularly review the risks associated with any activities, particularly if you take on a new activity or event. Building this sort of review into your regular committee activities will help to ensure that your organisers will not be considered negligent and held liable through a legal action.
If you have improvements or other examples to offer please let us know.