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EC-LLD / News! n. 4 of 2025
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EDITORIAL
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Dear Let's Liberate Diversity! community,
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Coming back from the 14th edition of the LLD Forum in Luxembourg, we carry a renewed sense of energy and commitment to our community.
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The exchanges in the 2025 edition of the LLD Forum once again showed how powerful it is when our network comes together to share practice, reflect on challenges and imagine new pathways forward.
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We are therefore very pleased to announce that the next Let’s Liberate Diversity! Forum will bring us together again in Scandicci (Florence), from 23 to 25 May 2026. We hope many of you will be able to join, to reconnect, deepen collaborations and collectively strengthen our movement.
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In parallel, work is advancing on Seeds of Growth, our Eursmus+ project aimed at supporting and connecting Community Seed Banks across Europe.
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Over the coming weeks we will be running a survey and designing an online training cycle to respond to the concrete needs and capacity gaps identified by CSBs practitioners. Your participation and support in disseminating the survey will be essential to ensure that this work is grounded in the realities of our network.
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We look forward to continuing this journey with you in the months ahead.
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The Let's Liberate Diversity! Secretariat
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LLD! Forum, Scandicci 2026 - Save the Date!
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The 15th edition of the LLD Forum! will take place in Scandicci, Italy, from the 23 to the 25 of May 2026... Save the Date!
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We look forward to seeing you for three days of exchange, learning and celebration in Scandicci, near Florence, from May 23 to 25, 2026.
This edition of the Forum will take place in parallel with the fifth edition of the “72 Hours of Biodiversity” festival, three days full of events themed around cultivated biodiversity organized by Rete Semi Rurali.
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- The programme will start on Saturday 23 May with arrivals, an European Consortium on Organic Plant Breeding (ECO-PB) event and a social evening to meet and reconnect. In the morning it will take place the EC-LLD General Assembly.
- On Sunday 24 May, the Forum will run for a full day of workshops, exchanges and networking, farmers market, conference and food tasting, with lunch provided and a free evening for informal meetings.
- On Monday 25 May, we will go on field visits exploring organic farms in the Tuscany countryside, closing the day with a shared dinner.
More information on the programme, logistics and accommodation will follow shortly. You'll find all the updates on the dedicated page.
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Seeds of Growth - Survey and save the date for the CSB labs
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What are needs and capacity gaps of your Community Seed Banks? What are the barriers that hinder your work?
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Take the survey to shape the forthcoming trainings.
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As part of the Seeds of Growth Erasmus+ project, we are launching a short survey to map needs and capacity gaps of Community Seed Banks (CSBs) across Europe. The findings will directly inform the upcoming training series of 3 session of 2 hours, that will take place in March 2026, ensuring that content responds to real challenges and priorities emerging from the field.
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We kindly invite you to complete the survey and share it within your network. The survey is available in English, Czech, German and French:
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NEWS from Let's Liberate Diversity! Members
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Important news from ARCHE NOAH regarding the Raise Our Forks petition and what to do.
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LiveSeeding recently published their second policy brief, this time focusing on the different definitions of plant breeding in the organic sector.
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Our partner María Carrascosa from Red de Municipios por la Agroecología recently shared updates on the Granollers Symposium 2025. Here we share the summary of next steps, and shared resources from the symposium.
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We are launching a survey to map organizations, networks, and communities working on farmers’ managed seed systems and cultivated biodiversity across the world. Complete the survey and share it widely
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The 14th Let’s Liberate Diversity! Forum in Luxembourg gathered 120+ participants from 20+ countries to celebrate seeds, biodiversity, and collaboration.
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Our colleagues at Réseau Semence Paysannes recently published a press communication in response to the Israeli government's destruction of the seeds bank in Hébron, Palestine. We share the press release here.
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NEWS from the communities
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We share with you an study on Open Source Seed models - how they navigate the current policy environment, and how they succeed.
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No Patents on Seeds! has recently published a report with a proposal to amend the law to breeders' access to biological material. We share the report here.
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Inf'OGM has recently began a podcast series on GMOs and biotech. Here we share the link to the first episodes. Enjoy!
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The report and policy brief from the workshop “Creating Space for Farmers’ Seeds in Seed Regulations – Capitalizing International Learnings and Identifying Options for Tanzania” are now available. We share them here.
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Get involved in the EU Seed marketing Reform
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We are grateful and excited to share that more than 200 organisations have supported the Joint letter "Production and Marketing of Plant Reproductive Material reform: NGOs, farmers’ and breeder representatives urge Member States to protect and enhance agrobiodiversity"
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Actions you can take now:
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- Share the letter with your Minister: Please send the letter directly to your national agriculture minister and/or relevant ministry contacts.
You can find an overview of ministers’ contact details here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QQ56C_Fe7yriPn08qtZVzI97YphpIqs3y5z8RPzxOsw/edit?usp=sharin…
- Post about the letter on social media: Share the letter and its key demands on your channels (X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.). Tag your national ministry and relevant policymakers where possible. If you like, you can also share/boost our posts to help build a common wave of visibility: @arche_noah_schiltern.
- Circulate the letter within your networks: Feel free to forward the letter and press text to allied organisations, media contacts and partners who may wish to support or report on this issue. We continue to collect signatures for the letter until 30 November and will update it with all new signatures then. Please feel free to share the letter with any group that might want to join: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iwYh7HKGbQopsNtNVQ7QHMctk8_UyAi-iglbPez561c/edit?usp=sharing
Arche Noah is organising an Online Seed Policy Workshop to discuss common positions, red lines and possible actions for the trilogue negotiations.
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The workshop is intended for representatives of organisations that are actively working on the seed marketing reform and will take place on the 27th and 28th of January from 9.00 to 15.00 CET.
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Save the date and follow us for updates.
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Seed Policy Guide published in Spanish
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We are pleased to share that the Seed Policy Guide, one of ECLLD’s key publications, is now also available in Spanish, alongside Italian, English, German and French. You can download the publication in Spanish here.
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For other languages click here.
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