Seed Freedom

Seed Freedom

There is a global uneasiness about how vegetable seeds are being processed and controlled by multinational companies.  So much so that we are seeing a lot of seed diversity disappearing.  The old heirloom seeds and seeds that will self germinate are being surpassed by just a few sterile varieties.  There are organisations setting up around the world to counteract this issue and more and more people are setting up seed banks and collecting varieties of seeds to keep them safe for future generations. One person is doing more though and campaigning on a worldwide level.  Dr. Vandana Shiva is asking for people to stand up and fight passively for something called ‘Seed Freedom’ which is a campaign to protect the free use and circulation of all seeds and not allow large companies to control the supply to farmers.

 About Dr. Vandana Shiva

Dr. Vandana Shiva is a philosopher, environmental activist, author and eco has authored more than 20 books on a wide range of environmental issues.  Shiva has fought for changes in the practice of agriculture and food. She has assisted grassroots organizations of the Green movement in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Ireland, Switzerland, and Austria with campaigns against genetic engineering. Shiva is the main organiser for the Seed Freedom fortnight starting on the 16^th of October.  Here is the message Shiva has sent out to all permaculturalists, gardeners and anyone that grows from seeds around the world.

Dear Permaculturists,

There can be no permanent agriculture without the permanence, diversity and renewability of seed. Unlike industrial monocultures, permaculture depends on the co-operation between different species – plant and animals, perennial and annual.

The seeds of this diversity are at the heart of an agriculture of permanence. This is why you have an extremely important role to play in the Global Campaign for Seed Freedom both to save the diversity of seeds as well as our freedom to save and exchange seeds. Everywhere new laws are being imposed that make seed diversity, seed freedom and seed exchange illegal.

That is why I invite you to play a leading role in the Fortnight for Seed Freedom from 2nd October (Gandhi’s Birth Anniversary) to 16th October 2012 (World Food Day). In the spirit of Gandhi’s satyagraha, we plan to focus especially on the 2nd October (Gandhi’s birth anniversary) as a call for civil disobedience against unjust seed laws, to declare our Seed Freedom.

In More Detail

Shiva tells us more about the precarious nature of large corporations controlling seed stocks

• The last twenty years have seen a very rapid erosion of seed diversity and seed sovereignty, and the rapid concentration of control over seed by a very small number of giant corporations
• Acreage under GM corn, soya, canola, cotton has increased dramatically.
• Besides displacing and destroying diversity, patented GMO seeds are also undermining seed sovereignty, the rights of farmers to grow their own seeds and to save and exchange seed.
• In countries across the world, new seed laws are being introduced which enforce compulsory registration of seed, thus making it impossible for small farmers to grow their own diversity, and forcing them into dependency on giant seed corporations.
• Genetic contamination is spreading fast.
• After contamination, Biotech Seed Corporations sue farmers with patent infringement cases. More than 80 groups came together recently in the US and filed a case to prevent Monsanto from suing farmers whose seed had been contaminated.
• As farmer’s seed supply is eroded, and farmers become dependent on patented GMO seed, the result is indebtedness. Debt created by Bt. Cotton in India has pushed farmers to suicide.
• Pressure by Monsanto on the US Government and the joint pressure of both on governments across the world is a major threat to the future of seed and the future of food.

These trends demonstrate a total control over the seed supply and a destruction of the very foundation of agriculture. We are witnessing a seed emergency at a global level. The disappearance of our biodiversity and of our seed sovereignty is creating a major crisis for agriculture and food security around the world. We must act before it is too late. Seeds are the first link in the food chain and the repository of life’s future evolution. As such, it is our inherent duty and responsibility to protect them and to pass them on to future generations. The growing of seed and the free exchange of seed among farmers has been the basis to maintaining biodiversity and our food security.

Shiva concludes:

“I am sure you will sense the emergency as deeply as I do, and feel the need to join forces to reclaim our seed and to protect our Seed Diversity and Seed Freedom.

Let us collectively make 2012 the year to “Save our Seeds” and “Reclaim our Seeds as a Commons” – from privatisation through patents, from compulsory registration laws, from seed monopolies, from genetic erosion and contamination.”

The whole process is being done peacefully, and as a wise old salt once said, “You can never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete. “

For more information about how people are participating in the event, check out the seedfreedom.in website.