Learning from the Grassroots focuses on committed grassroots networks that show that truly sustainable change in the area of food sovereignty is almost always initiated by civil society actors – associations, networks, independent NGOs, committed individuals – while bureaucratic rules and regulations often lag behind. One area that clearly demonstrates this is the regulation of seed transfer, which is driven by the industrial seed lobby.
The right to share local varieties is under threat in the US, the Global South and increasingly in Europe. While new genetic technologies are increasingly deregulated, making farmers more dependent on global seed companies that dictate prices and demand royalties for patents, the rights of farmers and gardeners to pass on seeds of local, climate-resilient varieties are increasingly restricted by patents and the need to meet certain requirements.
But the reflex to vote for right-wing parties because of the EU’s regulatory frenzy is exactly the wrong direction. These are the very parties that are most susceptible to the whispers of the industrial seed lobby.
While the powerful lobby of seed and pesticide companies in Brussels is gaining more and more influence, a decentralized civil seed lobby has long since emerged: a pan-European network of NGOs, seed banks and alternative seed companies, which operate according to strict organic guidelines and completely without genetic engineering and pesticides, are also trying to influence European seed policy. It is only thanks to the commitment of these civil society actors and their networking that the influence of large corporations in Europe has been delayed by several decades. But what will happen now?
