EU Commission Legislating Hunger and Poverty

A month ago I mentioned new EU legislation is being drafted to replace the current infamous ‘seed laws’.  It’s time for an update, and it’s not good news I’m afraid.

The normal procedure on this sort of thing is the EU agriculture ministers meet in a secret location, behind closed doors, and amend EU law with a secret voice vote, all totally immune to public opinion or accountability.  This time at least the legislation is following more formal procedures, and is being drafted under some public scrutiny.  Otherwise it seems like business as usual.  The legislation currently being considered is very draconian, represents a major set back for biodiversity, farmers rights and consumers rights, and the EU Commission doesn’t seem very concerned with any opinions from the pro-biodiversity side.

Two drafts have been tabled so far, and the trend is for a reaffirmation of the existing system, but with the removal of the few existing derivations (elements of flexibility).  There’s really nothing in this legislation to benefit biodiversity, with the exception of a non-binding introductory statement on the cover page.  The outcome of this legislation can only mean a continuing and acceleration of the process of spreading hunger and poverty around the world via EU trade policies.

In the past EU agriculture has been regulated with a series of patchwork directives, all interpreted a little differently under national legislation.  The measure being considered is a regulation, meaning it will come into force directly as EU law, without any flexibility of local interpretation.  In addition there are many pending elements of the regulation, ‘delegated acts’, which basically means they are to be decided later by committee.  This means we’re currently discussing a very abstract piece of legislation.

What we’ve all heard in the past is that politicians don’t want to spread famine and poverty around the world.  They say they themselves are not experts on this sort of thing and have to take the word of seed companies.  They say they never get any input from seed savers, as incredible as that seems.  It’s as if we’re all invisible or don’t exist.

Here’s my latest input, on behalf of all of you.  It’s proof this time we’re at the table, ready to talk.  This time they won’t be able to claim they haven’t heard from us.  They can’t say we didn’t warn them.

If anyone is interested in following the details of the legislation and/or participating in lobbying efforts, let me know and I’ll get more information to you.