Seed Sovereignty in Central and Eastern Europe
Increasingly stringent intellectual property rights on seeds have been contributing to genetic erosion in Europe for decades. Stricter legislation that favors commercial breeders' rights over farmers’ rights risks discriminating against small farmers and local communities who wish to protect native varieties of seeds and grow their own food. Farmers’ rights to sustainable use of agricultural genetic resources are to be protected under the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources (ITPGR), but implementation has been slow due to both lack of funding and lack of political will by signing governments. In many parts of the world, vibrant seed saving traditions still exist, and farmers’ organizations have been organizing activist campaigns to ease restrictions on farmer seed selection and reproduction. Yet countries where farms were largely collectivized during socialism in are in a unique situation, because while seed production was centralized, many varieties were saved on small private plots throughout the socialist years and may still be in the hands of small farmers. Now both the skills of older farmers and the seeds they are still preserving are in danger of disappearing. There is still little mobilization surrounding this issue, however, and information on farmer initiatives in these countries remains scarce due to differing conceptions of farmers' rights. The current project will begin to address this gap by exploring narratives of farmers' rights and farmer efforts to protect and use old varieties in the region.
Action Researcher: Guntra Aistara
Workshop on Central and Eastern European Seed Newtorks at "Let's Liberate Diversity" forum on February 25th, 2010 from 3.30-5:30 p.m. in Szeged, Hungary
New article:
"Latvia’s Tomato Rebellion: Nested Environmental Justice and Returning Eco-Sociality in the Post-Socialist Eu Countryside" by Guntra Aistara
Download here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01629778.2013.836831#.UpSyXhaFbww