The European Parliament is about to vote on two proposals for regulations, on the marketing and exchange of seeds (plant reproductive material) and on the deregulation of new GMOs (New Genomic Techniques, NTGs).
The following is the appeal of the European Coordination of La Via Campesina (ECVC), the only organization that truly represents the interests of family and peasant farms (94.8% of the total in the EU).
Seed exchanges, new GMOs. ECVC letter to MEPs
‘Members of the European Parliament, during the plenary session of 22-25 April you will vote on two proposals that are fundamental to farmers’ rights on seeds and the future of European agriculture: the proposal on the marketing of plant reproductive material (MRV) and the proposal to deregulate GMOs derived from ‘new genomic techniques’ (NTG).
The European Coordination of Via Campesina (ECVC) represents small and medium-sized European farmers, who are very concerned because these new regulations directly threaten their right to use, reuse, save and exchange their seeds, a right recognised by two international instruments. Below are our voting recommendations’.
Plant reproductive material
‘The proposal on Plant Reproductive Material (RPM), published by the Commission in July 2023, is very worrying for farmers, as it does not implement farmers’ rights on seeds at all and on the contrary represents a step back for farmers’ right to exchange seeds, compared to what is recognized in many national legislations.
The exchange of seeds between farmers is not only a right, but is also necessary to ensure dynamic management of seeds on the farm, and therefore the adaptation of seeds to local climatic and growing conditions, as well as the renewal of agrobiodiversity. The text proposed by the Commission would significantly limit any exchange of RPM between farmers, subjecting them to the same rules imposed on seed companies’.
Freedom of trade
‘The European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture’ – as seen (1) – ‘adopted significant improvements in March 2024. ECVC calls on all Members of the European Parliament to support these necessary improvements, and in particular the following amendments:
– a stricter definition of marketing, according to which only transfers for commercial exploitation fall within the scope of the Regulation, thus excluding the exchange of MRVs between farmers from the rules applicable to professional operators. Farmers exchanging seeds are not seed companies and must be subject to the rules of agricultural production, which include phytosanitary rules to ensure the health safety of these exchanges
– allow farmers to exchange any type of MRV, not only seeds, even in exchange for cost compensation. In order to allow dynamic management of seeds on the farm, the quantities exchanged must correspond to the needs of a small farmer for agricultural production. However, we are not in favour of the Commission setting these quantities. They should be defined by Member States according to national circumstances.’
Heterogeneous materials, exclude NGTs and patents
‘On heterogeneous materials, conservation varieties, MRVs marketed to end users and conservation mixtures, ECVC welcomes the introduction of these new categories, but is concerned that they constitute a gateway for patented GMOs (NTGs), which would be totally incompatible with the dynamic conservation objective that justifies these new categories.
Furthermore, if seeds marketed in these new categories are covered by a patent, farmers will lose the right to reuse harvest seeds (an exception, for farmers) which only applies to varieties covered by plant variety rights. We therefore support all amendments prohibiting GMOs/NTGs and intellectual property rights in these categories’.
Value for sustainable cultivation and use (VCUD)
‘With regard to the Value for Sustainable Cultivation and Use (VCUD) test, ECVC is totally opposed to the introduction of a sustainability test for the registration of varieties. Assessing the sustainability of varieties without taking into account the agricultural system in which they are grown is an absurdity.
On the contrary, there is a risk that this VCUD test will limit the marketing of sustainable varieties, provided they are grown in sustainable agricultural systems such as organic farming, in favour of industrial varieties adapted for intensive monocultures. ECVC therefore fully supports the proposal to allow VCUD on a voluntary basis for fruit and vegetables (species listed in Annex I, points b, c)’.
NO! to the deregulation of new GMOs
‘The proposal to deregulate GMOs obtained with new genomic techniques is completely unacceptable for farmers, as all NGTs, products and genetic information derived from them are patented.
Patents are a clear violation of farmers’ rights on seeds and if the traceability of NTGs were eliminated (i.e. there is no mandatory publication of the identification and distinction processes) farmers will find themselves faced with contamination, patent abuse and patent infringement procedures without any means of protection.
Deregulating NTGs simply means forcing all farmers to use NTGs seeds and strengthening the large multinational seed companies through the patent model, to the detriment of organic and non-GMO agriculture’.
MEPs’ mockery of patents for new GMOs
‘On 7 February 2024, the European Parliament called for changes to European patent law to prohibit the patentability of NTGs’. MEPs tried to mock European farmers, as the author has already denounced. (2) In fact, ‘neither the Parliament nor the EU can amend the rules of the European Patent Convention, to which other non-EU states are party.
Amending European legislation on GMOs before amending European patent legislation would leave farmers and breeders unprotected and would only benefit large multinational patent holders’.
Impact assessments essential
‘Above all, the Parliament should not consolidate its vote on this dossier when there are many essential issues unresolved, such as the upcoming EFSA opinion on the scientific basis of the proposal, due in July 2024, and a patent impact study that the European Commission will publish in 2025.
For all these reasons, the ECVC calls on MEPs to reject this unacceptable proposal for the deregulation of NTGs, which was only adopted in February thanks to empty promises on patents, traceability and labelling’.
European elections, it’s time for a change
The elections of candidates to the European Parliament for the 2024-2029 legislature will be held on 6-9 June in the 27 EU countries. And something new could happen in the coming weeks.
The MEPs whose terms are about to expire now have one last chance to show a minimum of attention towards the rights of farmers, citizens and the environment, rather than continuing to follow only the orders of the four global monopolists of pesticides and seeds and the agricultural confederations at their service, Coldiretti and Copa-Cogeca first and foremost. (3)
Farmers and citizens will in turn have the opportunity to distinguish who betrays them – as almost all the MEPs whose terms are about to expire have done so far, precisely on the new GMOs (4) – and who instead fights to protect them. Like the European Coordination La Via Campesina, and the writer who is running for the North-East College with a well-defined program. (5)
#CleanSpades #PeaceLandDignity
Dario Dongo
Footnotes
(1) Dario Dongo, Andrea Adelmo Della Penna. Seed exchange between farmers, the EU reform. Food Times. 13.3.24
(2) See paragraph 5 of the previous article by Dario Dongo, Alessandra Mei. New GMOs, NGTs. Green light from Strasbourg to deregulation. Food Times. 9.2.24
(3) Dario Dongo. The tentacles of finance on food sovereignty and our food. Food Times. 31.3.24
(4) Dario Dongo. New GMOs, the final betrayal. Food Times. 22.3.24
(5) Dario Dongo. Peace, Land and Dignity. Our movement in the 2024 European elections. Food Times. 14.3.24
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
