Registration of Farmers's Varieties in SADC: Report from Dialogue Held at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, 3-4 December 2019 African Centry for Biodiversity and Participatory Ecological Land Use Management -- March 2020 "In Africa, smallholder/peasant farmers produce and reproduce the majority of their own seed needs from season to season ... Despite this, farmer seed receives little to no recognition in policy, and there is limited support for farmer reproduction, adaptation, and use."
A Preliminary Report on Seeds and Seed Practices Across the United States Rights of Mother Earth/Defense of the Commons Workgroup, U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance -- Apr 2014 Based on the surveys and the Call to Action of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, the report provides individual, community, national and international action recommendations aimed at defending seeds from privatization and preserving them for the common good.
Africa: Stealth Assault on African Seeds AfricaFocus Bulletin -- 19 Jan 2016 "There is a renewed and stronger assault on seed ... based on legal systems that permit exclusive rights over seeds on the spurious contention that plant varieties were 'discovered' and improved on. But these 'discovered' varieties are the product of the whole history of collective human improvements and maintenance carried out by peasants. To assert exclusive rights over the whole on the basis of small adjustments is nothing short of outright theft." - SouthSouth Dialogue, Durban, South Africa, November 2015
Africa-US Food Sovereignty Statement Seattle, WA, USA -- 13 Oct 2014 "We are brought together by a shared belief in just, sustainable and equitable food for all. We share a concern over the dangerous loss of agricultural biodiversity and of the loss of dignified and viable livelihoods in the countryside."
Against the Odds: Smallholder Farmers Maintain Agricultural Diversity in South Africa African Centre for Biodiversity -- Jan 2017 "Many small, diverse farms with decentralised but connected support systems present a living alternative to the corporate-industrial model. Resistance against corporate encroachment into food and seed systems, coupled with the practical development of alternatives are both required to confront the conditions facing smallholder farmers and their seed and production systems in South Africa today."
Big Biotech's African Seed Takeover [Article] The Ecologist -- 14 Oct 2014 "It's all part of the corporate takeover of the continent's agriculture at the expense of the small farmers who feed most of Africa's people."
Biotech Ambassadors: How the U.S. State Department Promotes the Seed Industry's Global Agenda U.S. VersionEU Version Food and Water Watch -- 2013
Carving up Africa: Aid Donors and Agribusiness Plot the Great Seed Privatization Ian Fitzpatrick & Oliver Tickell, The Ecologist -- 26th March 2015 "An elite group of aid donors and agribusiness corporations met in London this week to plan the takeover of Africa's seeds ... replacing traditional seed breeding and saving by small farmers with a corporate model of privatized, 'improved', patented, genetically uniform and hybrid seeds in a profit-driven market."
Celebrating Seeds [video, 12:42 minutes] Million Belay, MELCA, Ethiopia, in collaboration with DF Norway -- 23 Oct 2014
Declaration on Plant Variety Protection and Seed Laws from the South-South Dialogue Durban, South Africa -- 27-29 Nov 2015 "Seeds are ... the collective heritage for people serving humanity. Peasants and indigenous peoples have always been the custodians and guardians of the collective knowledge embedded in the wide diversity of seed that has enabled the development of humankind as a species."
Declaration on Seed Freedom:Dr. Vandana Shiva, Navdanya, India Global Campaign on Seed Freedom -- Launched 22 June 2012 at Rio+20 Conference
Don't Let Food Be the Problem: Producing Too Much Food is What Starves the World Olivier De Shutter, Foreign Policy -- Jul/Aug 2015 "Food sovereignty has now left its rural origins and become a movement in which both consumers and producers seek to reclaim or reinvent food systems from the bottom up. Indeed, in all regions, groups of ordinary citizens are developing ways to gain autonomy and bypass the dominant industrial food systems."
Down on the Seed: The World Bank Enables the Corporate Takeover of Seeds The Oakland Institute, Alice Martin-Prével with support from Frederic Mousseau and Anuradha Mittal -- 2017 "Ignoring the calls of a wide range of experts for bottom-up seed solutions that benefit the poorest, the World Bank’s agribusiness indicator will foster seed scarcity for the sake of corporate profit."
Empire and Colonialism: Rich Men in London Still Deciding Africa's Future [Article] Colin Todhunter, Global Research -- 26 Mar 2015
European Parliament Slams G7 Food Project in Africa Cécile Barbière for EurActive, The Guardian -- 08 Jun 2016 “We have already made the mistake of intensive agriculture in Europe. We should not replicate it in Africa because this model destroys family farming and reduces biodiversity ...”
European Patents on Plants and Animals: Is the Patent Industry Taking Control of Our Food? Christoph Then and Ruth Tippe, No Patents on Seed -- 2014 This report illustrates how patents are on the verge of breaking through acceptable boundaries and putting our genetic resources at risk. Will our daily food soon be controlled by big corporations and the patent industry, or will our politicians make decisions to ensure that patents on plants and animals are prohibited?
Farmer Managed Seed Systems in Morogoro and Mvomero, Tanzania: The Disregarded Wealth of Smallholder Farmers African Centre for Biodiversity -- 2016 "This research was the first step in a process to identify the variety of seeds farmers are using, whether these seeds are suitable for their needs, what sorts of improvements farmers desire, and to determine if farmers are interested to take this issue further ..."
Food Sovereignty: A Critical Dialogue [Conference Resources] Yale University, 15-14 Sep 2013; International Institute of Social Studies in the Hague, 24 Jan 2014
Grabbing Africa's Seeds: USAID, EU and Gates Foundation Back Agribusiness Seed Takeover Stephen Greenberg & Oliver Tickell, The Ecologist -- 23 Mar 2015 "The latest salvo in the battle over Africa's seed systems has been fired ... with the Gates Foundation and USAID playing puppet-masters to Africa's governments ... as they drive forward corporation-friendly seed regulations that exclude and marginalize the small farmers whose seeds and labour feed the continent."
Graz Declaration: Freedom for Diversity 5th European Seed Meeting, Graz, Austria -- 25-27 Mar 2010
Harmonization of Africa's Seed Laws: A Recipe for Disaster Players, Motives and Dynamics Africa Centre for Biodiversity -- Nov 2012
Household Seed Banks: Fact Sheet Biowatch South Africa -- Sep 2016 "The relationship between seed and humans began around 10 000 years ago in the Neolithic period, when we first began domesticating wild plants for food. This intimate relationship with seed has been nurtured by countless farmers through the ages in a careful process of observation, seed selection and saving .... Approximately 7,000 plants were once collected or cultivated for food around the world. However, in the past 100 years, industrial agriculture has curtailed these age-old practices. By 2013 it was estimated that 75% of the immense agricultural diversity we inherited from our ancestors had been lost."
Integration of Small-Scale Farmers into Formal Seed Production in South Africa: A Scoping Report African Centre for Biodiversity -- Apr 2016 "Centrally, the report makes a compelling case for an alternative and potentially more useful approach to support black small-scale farmer seed production within farmer seed systems (outside the formal sector), rather than trying to integrate small-scale farmers into commercial production systems where they stand little chance of competing effectively."
Land and Seed Laws Under Attack: Who is Pushing Changes in Africa [Report] Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), GRAIN -- 21 Jan 2015 Portuguese Version "The 50 million people that the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition claims to be lifting out of poverty will only be allowed to escape poverty and hunger if they abandon their traditional rights and practices and buy their life saving seeds every year from the corporations lined up behind the G8." – Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement, member of AFSA, September 2014
Open Sesame: The Story of Seeds [Film, 82 minutes] A film by Sean Kaminsky, Open Pollinated Productions -- 2015 In this film you will meet a diverse range of individuals whose lives center around seeds. Farmers. Renegade gardeners. Passionate seed savers. Artists. Seed activists. This film tells the story of seeds by following their challenges and triumphs as they work to save this precious resource. It’s not too late…yet.
Open Source Seed Initiative [Website] OSSI Pledge: "This Open Source Seed pledge is intended to ensure your freedom to use the seed contained herein in any way you choose, and to make sure those freedoms are enjoyed by all subsequent users. By opening this packet, you pledge that you will not restrict others’ use of these seeds and their derivatives by patents, licenses, or any other means. You pledge that if you transfer these seeds or their derivatives they will also be accompanied by this pledge."
Owning Seeds, Accessing Food: A Human Rights Impact Assessment of UPOV 1991 based on Case Studies in Kenya, Peru and the Philippines Published by The Berne Declaration (BD), with the participation of Bread for the World – Protestant Development Service, Community Technology Development Trust, Development Fund – Norway, Misereor, SEARICE, Third World Network -- Oct 2014 "New research shows, the expansion of intellectual property rights on seeds might well restrict small-scale farmers’ practices of seed saving and use, exchange and selling in the informal seed supply system, limiting access to seeds and putting their right to food at risk."
Poster Training Materials for African Smallholder Farmers African Centre for Biodiversity -- Oct 2015 "Training Materials for smallholder farmers in Africa in several languages on a range of topics including on: the value of farmer seed systems; Intellectual property rights and UPOV 1991; ARIPO PVP Protocol; women as custodians of seed and many more."
Seed Law Training Posters African Centre for Biodiversity -- Aug 2016 In 8 languages and containing 7 themes: 1. What is a Seed Law; 2. What is Quality Declared Seed; 3. What are the DUS criteria; 4. Impacts of Seed Laws on farmer managed seed systems; 5. Harmonisation of Africa’s seed laws through SADC and COMESA; 6. Impacts of harmonisation of seed laws on farmer managed seed systems and small scale farmers; 7. Seed sovereignty for small-scale farmers. Please contact the ACB office, Office@acbio.org.za, for information on ordering the posters.
Seed Laws that Criminalise Farmers: Resistance and Fightback La Via Campesina and GRAIN -- Apr 2015 "Seeds are under attack everywhere. Under corporate pressure, laws in many countries increasingly put limitations on what farmers can do with their seeds and with the seeds they buy. Seed saving, a thousand-year-old practice which forms the basis of farming, is fast becoming criminalised. What can we do about this?"
Seed Libraries: and Other Means of Keeping Seeds in the HANDS of the PEOPLE Cindy Conner, New Society Publications -- Dec 2014 "Whoever controls the seeds controls the food supply. By empowering communities to preserve and protect the genetic diversity of their harvest, 'Seed Libraries' is the first step towards reclaiming our self-reliance while enhancing food security and ensuring that the future of food is healthy, vibrant, tasty, and nutritious."
Seed Map: Online Portal on Seeds, Biodiversity, and Food [Website] Project of USC Canada and ETC Group
Seed: The Untold Story [Documentary] Taggart Siegel, Jon Betz -- 2016 "Few things on Earth are as miraculous and vital as seeds. Worshipped and treasured since the dawn of humankind. SEED: The Untold Story follows passionate seed keepers protecting our 12,000 year-old food legacy. In the last century, 94% of our seed varieties have disappeared. As biotech chemical companies control the majority of our seeds, farmers, scientists, lawyers, and indigenous seed keepers fight a David and Goliath battle to defend the future of our food. In a harrowing and heartening story, these reluctant heroes rekindle a lost connection to our most treasured resource and revive a culture connected to seeds."
Seeds: Commons or Corporate Property? [Documentary: English, Portuguese, French sub-titles] GRAIN et al, Edited by Radio Mundo Real -- 29 Jan 2018 "The main characters are the seeds - indigenous, native, ours - in the hands of rural communities and indigenous peoples. The documentary illustrates that the defence of native seeds is integral to the defence of territory, life and peoples’ autonomy. It also addresses the relationship between indigenous women and native seeds, as well as the importance of seed exchanges within communities."
Seeds for Life: Scaling Up Agro-Biodiversity Teresa Anderson and Christine Campeau, The Gaia Foundation, Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, African Biodiversity Network -- 16 Oct 2013 Urgent action is needed to ensure that farmers today can grow resilient, nutritious food for us all, in the face of climate change and other challenges. At the core of such action must be strategies to revive the diversity of seed that has been lost from the world’s fields, and to support the knowledge and diversity that remains.
Seeds of Freedom (English) Seeds of Freedom (Portuguese, Spanish, French) [Video] The Gaia Foundation and African Biodiversity Network -- 2012
Seeds of Sovereignty [Video] (Builds on the above film, Seeds of Freedom) Film by Jess Phillimore, Gaia Foundation and African Biodiversity Network -- Dec 2013 "At the heart of each community’s story lies the seed, symbol of renewal and life. Exploring their relationship to seed and its deep cultural and spiritual significance, the film draws attention to the vital importance of seed diversity to humanity’s collective resilience and health and that of the ecosystems we rely on." 36.34 minutes
Seeds of Justice [Video] (Builds on the above films) Film by Jess Phillimore, Gaia Foundation -- Dec 2015 36:45 minutes
Seeds of Hope, Seeds of Resilience: How Biodiversity and Agroecology Offer Solutions to Climate Change by Growing Living Carbon Vandana Shiva et al, Navdanya -- 2017 "Today, we are faced with two life threatening planetary crises – climate change and species extinction. Both crises are inter-connected, and have common roots. Our current modes of production and consumption based on fossil fuels - starting with the industrial revolution and intensified by the advent of industrial agriculture, have contributed to both these crises."
State of Organic Seed, 2016 Kristina Hubbard & Jared Zystro, Organic Seed Alliance -- Jun 2016 "The purpose of our State of Organic Seed project is to measure the progress we’re making in increasing the availability, quality, and integrity of organic seed. We envision an organic food system built on a foundation of organic seed. This report serves as an important summary of ongoing challenges to achieving this goal, and includes updated recommendations to guide research, education, and policy efforts for the next five years"
Tanzanian Farmers Face Prison for Traditional Seed Exchange Ebe Daems, Mondiaal Nieuws -- 07 Dec 2016 "Under the new law, Tanzanian farmers risk a prison sentence of at least 12 years or a fine of over €205,300, or both, if they sell seeds that are not certified."
The Future of Food: Farming with Nature, Cultivating the Future Vandana Shiva et al., Navdanya International -- Mar 2020 The first path is made by walking with nature, co-creating and co-producing with sensitivity, intelligence and care with diverse species, the living earth and her complex web of life.
The Future of Food: Seeds of Resilience - A Compendum of Perspectives on Agricultural Biodiversity from Around the World -- Sep 2016 "Agricultural biodiversity is essential to the future of food. A deep pool of biodiversity will ensure that we have plant species and varieties that can withstand changing weather patterns. Agricultural biodiversity is directly connected to global nutrition, dietary health, cultural and culinary diversity, and to the resilience of local economies and markets. Seeds are central to the everyday practices of small-scale farmers that feed 70 per cent of the world’s population."
The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food [Book] Janisse Ray, Chelsea Green Publishing -- 2012
The Seeds of Suicide: How Monsanto Destroys Farming Dr. Vandana Shiva, The Market Oracle -- 23 Apr 2013
The Unholy Alliance: Five Western Donors Shape a Pro-Corporate Agenda for African Agriculture Alice Martin-Prével, The Oakland Institute -- 2016 "In recent years, prominent international donors’ initiatives have focused on supporting industrial agriculture and large agribusiness companies at the expense of family farmers. The World Bank’s 'Enabling the Business of Agriculture' (EBA), is one of these initiatives."
Too Big to Feed Us! Lead author Pat Mooney, International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) -- 13 October, Rome Pat Mooney, lead author of the IPES-Food report, said: “We are now in unchartered territory. If the deals on the table go ahead, three firms will control more than 60% of global seed and pesticide markets.”
Olivier De Schutter, IPES-Food co-chair and former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, said: “Rampant consolidation in the agri-food industry is bad for farmers, whose incomes are squeezed at one end by a handful of input providers, and at the other by processing and retail giants with huge bargaining power.”
Towards Food Sovereignty in Africa: Nurture the Environment and Put Farmers at the Centre [Statement] Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), issued from Lome, Togo -- 19 July 2014
Towards National and Regional Seed Policies in Africa that Recognize and Support Farmer Seed Systems African Centre for Biodiversity -- 23 Mar 2018 "Our starting point is that seed policies and laws, as they are being developed across Africa and globally today, neither recognise nor support farmer seed systems ... However, more recent times have seen a growing recognition that farmer seed systems remain the foundation of agricultural production across Africa and in other places, globally, and are intricately linked to the ability to transition agriculture towards agroecology through supporting and strengthening biodiversity, with ‘downstream’ effects throughout the food system."
Towards Socially Just and Ecologically Sustainable Seed Policies for Africa Sabrina Masinjila, African Centre for Biodiversity -- July 2017 "Harmonised regional seed laws influence the shaping of national seed legislation, including plant variety protection laws. These are primarily determined by political and economic interests, as private seed companies seek to expand their business ventures into wider markets in Africa. On the other hand, farmer managed seed systems (FMSS), which are the basis of agricultural systems on the continent, are pointedly ignored, undermined and criminalised. This has huge implications for smallholder farms, where 80% of the seed used is from FMSS. These systems feed the continent, ensuring nutrition and supporting livelihoods, and are central to agroecological systems, cultural practices and biodiversity conservation."
UPOV91: The Apartheid Seed Law: Why Would Anyone Want to Destroy Farmers' Experimentation and Knowledge? Carol Thompson, Pambazuka News -- 03 Jun 2015 UPOV91 is trying to establish, by law, the inferior status of smallholder farmers who breed and do scientific experiments in the field. It legitimizes the corporate plant breeders' entitlement and presumed superiority. The normative law translates back into profit for the corporations benefiting from PVP - plant variety protection. This constructed distinction between two different types of breeding becomes a "ritual of truth".
UPOV 91 and Other Seed Laws: A Basic Primer on How Companies Intend to Control and Monopolize Seeds, GRAIN -- 21 Oct 2015 "All over the world, farmer’s seeds and seed systems are under attack. Corporations are pushing for ever more aggressive new laws and regulations that criminalise farmers for sowing, keeping, exchanging, and taking care of their seeds. If companies get their way, farmers around the world will face the possibility of being jailed or harshly fined for doing what they have been doing over centuries."
Water for Food Security and Nutrition Report by the High Level Panel on Food Security & Nutrition, Committee on World Food Security, Rome -- 15 May 2015 "Safeguarding water for the dignity, health, food and nutrition security of everyone on the planet is one of humanity’ biggest challenges. The analysis and the recommendations of this report are a contribution to this ambitious roadmap."
World Crop Diversity Survives in Small Farms from Peri-Urban to Remote Rural Locations Karl Zimmerer, Penn State University, article published in EurekAlert! (service of American Association for the Advancement of Science) -- 13 Feb 2015 "As much as 75 percent of global seed diversity in staple food crops is held and actively used by a wide range of small farmholders -- workers of less than three to seven acres -- with the rest in gene banks, according to a Penn State geographer."
Yvapuruvu Declaration: Seed Laws - Resisting Dispossession Alianza Biodiversidad, Red por una América Latina Libre de Transgénicos, and Vía Campesina World Seeds Campaign -- Paraguay 17-18 Oct 2013
