Let’s Liberate Diversity! News
(Belated) news on the EU Council’s decision on PRM rules
EU Council’s new ruling on Plant Reproductive Material
Last December, the EU Council voted to begin negotiations on new rules for the management of plant and forest reproductive material (PRM).
You can read the EU Council’s press release here: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2025/12/10/council-agrees-negotiating-position-on-new-rules-for-plant-reproductive-material/
IFOAM warns the Council’s position is still harmful to farmers and agrobiodiversity
IFOAM issued a press release in response to the Council’s ruling. You can read it here: https://www.organicseurope.bio/news/ifoam-organics-europe-warns-the-councils-prm-position-limits-farmers-choice-and-jeopardises-agrobiodiversity/
IFOAM warns:
- The deletion of the reference to assessing uniformity through off-type, as long as adapted testing protocols have not yet been adopted, could undermine the registration of organic varieties.
- The Council restricted local varieties to only fruits and vegetables and limited them geographically. Much work is ongoing on arable local varieties across Europe, and it is essential that the legal framework allows their registration and marketing.
- Farmers’ exchanges of PRM allow only exchanges in kind, in small quantities and at local level.
- The Council’s position is too restrictive for networks and organisations involved in the conservation and dynamic management of genetic diversity. Their role is essential to maintain and enhance diversity in European fields and must be facilitated.
Read the full press release here: https://www.organicseurope.bio/news/ifoam-organics-europe-warns-the-councils-prm-position-limits-farmers-choice-and-jeopardises-agrobiodiversity/
ARCHE NOAH objects to the Council’s ruling in a press release
Our colleagues at ARCHE NOAH also published a press release explaining the risks of the Council’s position for farmer’s rights and agrobiodiversity.
Read here: EU Agriculture Ministers Restrict Farmers’ Rights
Sign letter of support to our Malaysian colleagues
Malaysian smallholder farmers urge their government to not join UPOV1991
UPOV 1991 is an international intellectual property regime that grants exclusive monopoly rights to commercial breeders over seeds and planting material for 20 years or more.
Why is UPOV1991 harmful?
- Farmers’ Rights: UPOV 1991 outlaws age-old farmer practices of freely using, saving, exchanging and selling farm-saved seeds central to smallholder farming.
- Food Security: Small-scale farmers feed around 70% of the world’s population. Weakening their right to seeds and their seed systems threatens seed and food sovereignty.
- Biodiversity: UPOV favours uniform commercial varieties. Today, just nine crops account for over 60% of global production, accelerating genetic erosion.
- Legal & Economic Pressure: Seed monopolies have led to lawsuits, fines and rising seed prices, pushing farmers into dependency on corporate seed markets.
- Biopiracy: UPOV 1991 does not allow safeguards against biopiracy of native varieties and seeds, thereby undermining farmers rights including the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.
Stand in solidarity with Malaysian smallholder farmers by signing their open letter
Our colleagues at APREBES have forwarded us the open letter that will be presented to the Prime Minister of Indonesia and request that as many organisations as possible sign. The deadline to sign is January 10th.
See full letter in English and Spanish.
Please share this call with other networks and organisations.
EU Agriculture Ministers Restrict Farmers’ Rights
“The position of the agriculture ministers endangers those who keep crop diversity alive. We call for reason to foster resilience in agriculture and protect the diversity and flavour on our plates,” comments ARCHE NOAH seed law expert Magdalena Prieler. The trilogue negotiations between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on the new “Regulation on the Production and Marketing of Plant Reproductive Material” will begin in the new year.
Instead of protecting farmers and local seed producers, the Council’s position imposes the same bureaucratic requirements on small companies as on global corporations. The new record-keeping, reporting and traceability rules would hit small producers the hardest. However, small producers make an invaluable contribution to the preservation and marketing of old, open-pollinated varieties. Despite their small size, they also often offer a wider range of crops than the largest players on the market. “If these small businesses are pushed out of the market owing to new administrative burdens, our markets would lose much of their crop diversity – an outcome that harms us all” says Prieler.
The Council of Agriculture Ministers also wants to prevent the marketing of newly developed diverse cereal or oilseed varieties. The Council restricts the possibility for new varieties to deviate from strict uniformity requirements to only fruits and vegetables. “This restriction amounts to a ban on the work of diversity breeders. Regional operators that offer adaptable seed of niche crop species or develop varieties for innovative, environmentally friendly cultivation systems such as market gardening would be excluded from the market. Farmers would become completely dependent on the seed industry under this rule”, Prieler explains.
Agriculture Ministers restrict farmer seed exchange
In addition, the Council’s position forbids farmers from exchanging their seed with farmers outside their region, even in small quantities. The exchange of other types of propagating material, such as fruit-tree scions, is completely prohibited. Yet access to crops and varieties from other regions is often essential for farmers facing the climate crisis. “Seed exchange is not only a human right for peasants recognised in international law. It t enables farmers to experiment, innovate and support each other in difficult times,” Prieler explains. “By restricting these exchanges so drastically, the Council of Agriculture Ministers is hollowing out farmers’ seed rights until they are barely worth the paper they are written on.”
Some improvements made, but major issues remain
After over two years of continuous advocacy, ARCHE NOAH succeeded in securing some important improvements to the proposal ahead of today’s decision. The Council has now introduced adapted rules for the production of propagating material of old fruit varieties, instead of applying the same standards used for large-scale orchard production. Our work also contributed to the removal of several unworkable requirements for “standard seed,” such as the separation of seed and food production on small farms and the demand for expensive germination tests in external laboratories.
Look ahead to the trilogue negotiations in 2026
ARCHE NOAH demands that the transfer of plant reproductive material for the purpose of preserving agrobiodiversity remains exempt from seed legislation, as is currently the case in several member states including Austria. Farmers’ freedom to exchange seed among themselves must be guaranteed, and the administrative burden for very small farms must remain proportionate. All of these points are missing from the Council’s position.
The trilogue negotiations between the Council, the Parliament, and the Commission on the final legal text will begin in the new year. ARCHE NOAH — together with numerous seed initiatives from across Europe — will continue to work to ensure that the new seed legislation strengthens crop diversity and farmers’ seed rights, rather than restricting these principles even further. “The Council’s position is unacceptable. Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig and his colleagues must finally take decisive action so that the important work of conservation initiatives and small seed enterprises can continue in the future—to save the diversity in our fields and on our plates and to strengthen the resilience of our agriculture in times of climate crisis”, Prieler demands.
For enquiries:
ARCHE NOAH, Association for the Conservation and Development of Cultivated Plant Diversity
Axel Grunt
Head of Communications
+43 680 2379245
Image Service:
Downloads under www.arche-noah.at/presse-medien/pressefotos
Requests to presse@arche-noah.at
Support the European Citizens’ Initiative on the Right to Food!
In May 2024, the second European Citizens’ Initiative Forum for the Right to Food was held in Geneva, Switzerland. The event brought together over 70 participants who engaged in various working groups over the three days, initiating a collaborative process to advocate for the right to food.
European Citizens’ Initiative Forum for the Right to Food, May 2024
The European Citizens’ Initiative on the Right to Food has been submitted
Last month, the Brussels-based NGO Good Food for All – EU (GFFA-EU) officially submitted the European Citizens’ Initiative on the Right to Food to the European Commission. Once confirmed, the ECI will open a for signature collection. One million verified signatures from EU citizens and minimum threshold of signatures across seven EU states are needed for the European Commission to consider proposing new laws on the right to food.
For now, it is time to organize. Participants of the May 2024 Forum are invited to collaborate with Good Foor for All – EU in driving the ECI campaign.
How can you support?
1. Join the Coalition
If your organization supports the Right to Food and wants to be part of this European force for change, please fill out this short form to officially express your interest in joining the coalition:
→ Join the Coalition Form
Once submitted, we will follow up with the Memorandum of Understanding for formalization. We are also appointing national focal points, so if your organization wants to take that lead, let us know in the form.
2. Join the Campaigning Working Group
We are relaunching the pan-European campaign we began designing last year. We need political communicators, campaigners, creative agencies, grassroots mobilizers, and fierce allies.
If your organization can contribute, or if you want to refer someone else, please fill out this form:
→ Join the Campaign Group Form
3. Spread the Fire
Talk about the ECI on the Right to Food! Share the links. Use your channels. Mobilize your networks. Be the voice of the Right to Food in your country, your organization, your city.
Seeds at Risk – Global Struggles for Control over Food / Online Launch of the Report
Available in English, French, and German, the report will be officially introduced during an online event on 24 April at 14:00 CEST. This interactive dialogue brings together prominent voices working to uphold farmers’ rights and seed sovereignty.
Join the Conversation
Be part of an insightful exchange with:
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Shalmali Guttal – Member of the UN Working Group on the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP)
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Mamadou Goïta – Expert from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food)
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Simon Degelo – Seeds and biodiversity specialist at SWISSAID
The webinar will be accessible in English, French, German, and Spanish, with real-time interpretation provided.
Click here to register and take part in this important discussion on the future of our food and seed systems.
Let’s Liberate Diversity! Forum 2025 – Registration Now Open
We are excited to announce that registration is now open for the Let’s Liberate Diversity! Forum 2025, co-organised by Let’s Liberate Diversity!, Lycée Technicque Agricole (LTA), SEED Luxembourg, and LUGA Join us in Luxembourg from 4 to 6 September 2025 for a...
Bring your seeds to the LLD Forum!
CALL FOR SEEDS! If you are joining us at the 14th European Forum ‘Let’s Liberate Diversity’ this coming September, please bring your seeds from bean, pumpkin, and corn varieties. We will use them to illustrate our political message for the liberation of...
Growing the Movement: Connecting Global Seed Networks at the LLD! Forum
Over the past year, a quiet yet powerful convergence has been unfolding in the world of farmers’ seeds. Across regions, many initiatives, networks, and platforms have been working, often in parallel, to support farmers’ seed systems and cultivated biodiversity. While these efforts vary in scope and approach, there is growing recognition that better coordination is needed. A collective effort is now emerging to connect the dots, improve alignment, strengthen exchanges, and explore ways of working more effectively together.
From Shared Conversations to Shared Purpose
This process began in 2024, when ECLLD started facilitating conversations with partners from different regions working on farmers’ seeds. These early exchanges revealed a common challenge: while many collaborations already exist, we often lack visibility on each other’s work. We don’t always know which processes are underway, what strategies are being used, or how decisions made in different spaces might affect the work we are doing with our communities.
The 13th edition of the Let’s Liberate Diversity! Forum, held in Antibes in 2024, marked a turning point. It offered a concrete opportunity to bring together regional and international actors to explore how we might improve coordination and build more connected ways of working. It was also the starting point for imagining a shared ecosystem of collaboration—one that could support mutual learning, policy engagement, and joint action.
An informal group began to take shape following the workshop in Antibes. Since then, it has continued to grow, involving more actors and gaining wider recognition.
Antibes 2024 – First Workshop on Strenghtening Global Seed Networks
Strengthening the Ties: A Global Web in the Making
Today, the momentum continues to build. A growing number of organisations and platforms are actively engaged, including Oxfam’s Community of Practice on Farmers’ Seed Systems, the IFOAM Seed Platform, the Seed Library Network and Open Source Seed Initiative (North America), Farmers’ Seed Networks in China and Kenya, and COASP in West Africa.
Together, these actors are creating a space for dialogue and reflection. It is a space where diverse initiatives can come together to discuss opportunities and explore potential roadmaps for improving strategic coordination in support of farmers’ seeds and cultivated biodiversity.
As we look ahead, this emerging network aims to map who is working on farmers’ seeds worldwide and to create common spaces and shared infrastructure for exchange, coordination, learning, and mobilisation.
Launching the Survey at the LLD Forum 2025
The next milestone will be the launch of a global survey, designed to identify and map the wide range of actors engaged in farmers’ seed systems and cultivated biodiversity around the world. More than just a data collection tool, the survey is a first step in building the foundations for a co-owned global map and shared infrastructure to support the long-term coordination across different movements and initiatives.
The survey will be launched at the Let’s Liberate Diversity! Forum 2025, taking place in Luxembourg from 4–6 September 2025. As part of the Forum, we will host a hybrid workshop to present the survey, refine its dissemination strategy, and explore the next steps toward shared ways of working and the co-development of an ecosystem of collaboration.
Join Us: From Dialogue to Action
This is a unique moment to help shape the future of global collaboration on farmers’ seeds. Whether you are part of a network, an organisation working on seeds, a grassroots initiative, a seed-saving community, a research institution, or a policy platform, your perspective matters. We warmly invite you to join us in Luxembourg, or online, for the LLD Forum and hybrid workshop.
More information on registration, the programme, and participation options is available at:
https://liberatediversity.org/lld-forum-luxembourg-2025/
New Agroecology Digest, June 2025
The June 2025 edition of the FAO’s Agroecology Knowledge Hub’s journal has been published.
This month’s issue explores the urgent need to transition food systems away from fossil fuels, highlighting pathways toward energy-smart, agroecological alternatives through timely reports, thought-provoking webinars, and the “Fuel to Fork” podcast from IPES-Food.
Also in this issue:
- Stories from the ground—from community-led trainings in Asia to women’s leadership in Africa
- New research and policy updates on climate resilience, sustainable inputs, and farmer networks
- Fresh multimedia—from rice-duck farming video to agroecology podcasts in action
You can find a copy of the journal attached to this post. Enjoy the read!
Video
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