Arche Noah has released the recordings of the workshop Taking action together for a better Seed Law from last November, together with the presentation slides, which contain a useful timeline for action (see post picture). Arche Noah’s advocacy package also contains a position paper on the regulation proposal, highlighting the following issues which impact agrobiodiversity and farmers’ rights:
- The proposal endangers the remaining diversity of cultivated plants
- It creates problems for the conservation of fruit diversity
- It fails in its attempt to make diverse varieties more widely available by creating new regulatory costs
- It bans imports of seeds from gene banks and of conservation and amateur varieties
- It fails to prevent the misappropriation of PRM circulated in conservation networks or farmer seed systems
- It undermines the recently adopted EU Organic Regulation
- Besides, it fails to implement farmers‘ right to seed
- It allows firms to make false sustainability claims
- It also fails to provide sufficient transparency for farmers and gardeners on the seeds they buy
