Lettuce, beets and tomatoes from our own seed again

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) repealed a controversial EU directive which banned the use of private seed

The EU had been forcing the seeds of agro-multinationals upon their farmers by banning the production of native seeds. Now again Europe’s farmers are allowed to produce and market seeds from the old plant varieties themselves. That was declared by the European Court thus suspending a controversial EU directive which had forbidden this so far. The ruling is a severe setback for seed companies like Bayer and Monsanto, which dominate the market.

cc. The EU directive, which has been repealed by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) now, had prohibited farmers to produce and sell seed from the old, not officially approved varieties of plants.

For consumers, farmers and agro-industry the judgment now is of great importance.

The judgment was based on the case that the seed-farming network Kokopelli in France had been sued by the industrial seed company Graines Baumax. The network had more than 461 seeds of plant varieties on offer, which were not registered in official catalogs of varieties. Graines Baumaux was sued for unfair competition and claimed for damages of 50,000 and a ban on the marketing of seed not registered in the official catalog of varieties.

Setback for Bayer, Monsanto and Syngenta

The recent judgment is not only a severe setback for transnational seeds and agricultural companies such as Bayer, Monsanto and Syngenta. At present these seed corporations dominate more than 65 percent of the global seed market.

On 12 July the television station n-tv gave a voice to Heike Schiebeck from the Austrian branch of the Association of Small Farmers Via Campesina on its website. She quoted former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger: “Whoever controls the seeds controls the world.”

The representative of small farmers believes that agricultural companies want to secure the intellectual property rights to all crop plants – even to non-genetically engineered plants. She says that patents on non-wrinkled tomatoes, a special anti-cancer broccoli and an especially sweet melon already prove that.
n-tv reproduces the point of view of the smallholders’ representative as follows: Farmers are driven even further into the dependence on agricultural companies by means of more and more rights to plants, because those seeds require special fertilizers and pesticides for optimal production. Then farmers who have agreed will spend five times more money for fertilizers and pesticides than for the seed itself, says the farmwoman.

Farmers to decide for themselves

The Advocate General of the ECJ, Juliane Kokott considers the dispute over the seeds as a struggle for the independence of farmers. In her legal advice, she took the line that, via the marketing ban of old varieties, “farmers were forced to use more productive varieties – also against their will if necessary”. But in her opinion, as reported by n-tv, farmers should be allowed to decide themselves what varieties they want to grow. They even might give up cultivating their fields.

As the Advocate General of the ECJ she pointed out that the official ban on unapproved varieties had also resulted in a massive loss of biodiversity and a potentially dangerous predominance of industrial seeds: The possibility could not be ruled out that – by the cause of banning unapproved varieties of plants – plants would be missing in future – plants that would be able to adapt better to a climate change or new diseases than today’s prevailing varieties.

Supply will be more colorful

In addition, the consumer’s choice would be restricted regarding agricultural products: In their own gardens they would only be allowed to grow what would have been in line with with the EU directive.

The TV station writes about the very practical consequences of the judgment: “As a result of ECJ ruling, the EU Commission has to lift the ban on the marketing of old varieties now and to invite the member states to follow. In organic food stores and on local markets consumers may soon enjoy vegetables which seemed to have disappeared for a long time and which may not be so firm but might be even more aromatic.”    •

^{Sources: n-tv.de, dpa/AFP of 12 July 2012, www.n-tv.de/politik/EuGH-staerkt-Rechte-der-Bauern-article6716111.html}  

^{(Translation Current Concerns)}