In what’s an obvious first step to clear the way for patents and GMOs, the European Union is preparing a new seed law to replace the existing one. Several months ago the EU considered what to do with the current legislation and discussed 3 possibilities; maintain current legislation unchanged, modify current legislation, or drop current legislation. In their wisdom, they decided seed legislation was necessary, but should be changed. With this as a foregone conclusion, they have opened a period of public consultation on how best to change the current seed laws.
In their published documents they offer a number of scenarios, and while some are worse than others, none are completely acceptable.
There’s honestly little hope they’ll actually take public opinion into account, but it’s still very important to give them a run for their money. Maybe, if they get a large response, and they can see people are very upset about their plans, it may have some impact. Please try to submit a response if you can. If you’re unable to read through all of their documents and submit a response using their form, please just send them an email stating your objections to seed laws in general and the registration of varieties.
I’ll try to put together as much information as I can together with arguments, before the deadline for submission. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please give them here! I’ll also post my response, so if nothing else, please consider replacing my name with your own and submitting it yourself.
The European seed laws affect everyone everywhere on the planet, and everyone everywhere should respond to this public consultation. The EU is the largest economy in the world, and rules that become established here will be pushed onto other countries as well. Above all else it’s vital to protect our rights to save and regrow our own seeds, no matter where in the world we live.
