EU seed soveriegnty insanity

[UndercoverElephant]

Nice work, Sam.

[sam_uk]

language is mostly not English, and they will be getting hundreds of emails. I suspect they may have filters which means they may not even see most of them.

Did translations for the MEP ones, in retrospect a email per- language would have been better.

In terms of length I like Featherstick's approach. Clear in first line what it's all about, (most stop reading here) but give them plenty to think about if they are interested.

Probably the easiest way is to filter email is by subject, so I just removed the subject from the pre-filled email

This means everyone has to write their own, getting a nice range of subjects now.

I guess they will have to

Filter by: Body
Search term: Odious

Cheers

Sam

[RenewableCandy]

I'm afraid the "odious" got exponged from my short billets-doux, because only debts and comparisons can be odious

On the bright side, that may increase their chances of being read

[featherstick]

Did Ashton, Barroso, Reding, Kloes, Kallas, and Kroes this evening, before Outlook gave up

[sam_uk]

Soil association getting active on this now:
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23saveseed&src=typd

Pls RT a couple if you are a Twitter user & write a tweet a day using the #saveseed hashtag.

& Please share on your facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer. ... evelopment

Please also cut and paste the above to any other forums you are on..

Thanks!

Sam

[biffvernon]

Just had this e-mail:

Use this area to offer a short teaser of your email's content. Text here will show in the preview area of some email clients. Is this email not displaying correctly?
View it in your browser.

openseed

Draft press release (Needs to be shorter, please reply with edited improved version)

This week social media woke up to Regulation on Marketing of Plant Reproductive Material , A New Seed Law goes before the EU commissioners on May 6th 2013

A website featuring details of the plans has been circulated widely on Facebook (Ref 1)
And Twitter (2), Hundreds of emails sent to the EU comissioners via http://open-seeds.org/bad-seed-law/

If passed it would mean no seed can be sold, or potentially even given for free, to anyone anywhere in the EU unless it is registered on the EU Plant List as an ‘approved’ variety. This would effectively outlaw Heritage seeds in the EU.

The new regulation threatens rare varieties and farmers’ varieties. Non-commercial varieties are under particular threat of extinction, as the new regulation foresees that the exchange of seeds will become illegal for different kinds of actors. This would harm small-scale farmers and local producers. On the other hand, industrial seed companies would extend their dominance.

The most recent Draft law is not available to the public which raises serious questions about the tranparency and accountability of the process.


More seriously there are allegations of a conflict of interest and illegality at the heart of the plans (Ref 3):

The draft legislation is being sponsored by DG SANCO (the Directorate-General for Health and Consumers), but is being opposed by both DG AGRI (Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development) and DG ENVI (Directorate-General for the environment), on the grounds that it doesn’t have reasonable provision for EU heritage and public domain varieties.

The inter-services consultations have come to a standstill at the EU Commission, because of the actions of one person, Madame Isabelle Clement-Nissou, a French ‘national expert’. The reason for her opposing even the smallest provision for heritage and public domain varieties seems to be her continued relationship with former employer Groupement National Interprofessionnel des Semances et Plants (GNIS), a privately funded lobby organization that fiercely defends the interests of the French Seed Industry.

A relationship like this is a clear violation of European law, and a conflict of interest.


An analysis of the law has been carried out by the Transition Bolton group (Ref 4)

They are asking you for unbelievable powers. – “The scope of the proposed Regulation covers all types of plant reproductive material.”

The proposed law will burden seed growers by setting up an office (Community Plant Variety Office (CVPO: in legal text ‘office’). ) that will charge to have each plant & operator registered, checked, labelled with lot numbers, certified and annual fees thereafter such as annual audits of each operator to maintain it. To give you an idea how difficult this will be the Millenium Seed bank at Kew Gardens has a network across 50 countries and only has 10% of seed stock listed/certified and this proposed Law wants to regulate ALL plant types in EU?

Can you imagine each operator has to fix a label on every individual plant. Can you imagine the price of plants if this implemented? : The operator’s label shall be produced with reference to a lot, and shall be affixed on the outside of individual plants, packages, containers and bundles. Article 22.

Each plant will have it’s own passport. “In case the issuance of a plant passport is required pursuant to Article [61 of Plant health Regulation], that plant passport shall be combined with the official label in a single label ” Article 23.

Each plant will have it’s own colour label depending what it is. This will add even more cost and complexity. Each label shall have a distinct colour per category and type of plant reproductive material.

Even the shape of the label. (a) the colours and shape of the label for specific categories and types of plant reproductive material;

The packaging of individual plants with tamper proof sealed packages. How hard is all this going to be for everyone? – Packages and containers shall be closed in such a way that they cannot be opened without damaging the closure and, in the case of packaging, without the packaging showing signs of tampering.

And then after all that, the Law proposes “post certification tests” to make sure everything above is ok. After the certification referred to in Article 18(1), the competent authorities may carry out tests of the plant reproductive material to confirm that it complies with Article 17(2) and the certification schemes adopted pursuant to Article 20(1) (hereinafter: ‘post certification tests’).

A small Heritage seed company Real seeds have been at the forefront of the battle (Ref 5)

Their statement says:

SAY NO TO PROHIBITION OF SEEDS OF DIVERSITY!

By forcing registration of all varieties of all crop species , the new law will prohibit old, rare and traditional public-domain farm varieties. This will guarantee huge profits for the seed industry but will be a terrible loss to the people of Europe as our agricultural heritage is outlawed overnight!


The Soil Association have put out a statement (Ref 6)
The Soil Association believes the proposed new EU regulation on the marketing of plant reproductive material will put the future of our plant biodiversity at risk. It will have a disastrous effect on the availability of rare varieties and farmers’ varieties, and stop the exchange and selling of traditional seeds. This will not only affect farmers and growers in the short term by outlawing exchange of seed not currently commercially available, but in the long term will erode the diversity of species that even the large seed companies, who are driving the proposal, need to provide their future varieties.


Garden Organic the largest UK Organic gardening charity have also put out a statement (Ref 7):

Stop the loss of plant biodiversity and protect the gardeners' right to exhange seeds and grow their heritage plants now!

Call for significant changes in the new Regulation on Marketing of Plant Reproductive
Material (PRM) will put the future of our plant biodiversity at risk, by
·removing the rights of farmers and gardeners in Europe and developing countries;
·preventing gardeners and farmers from growing their own plants from seed;
·adversely affecting global food security;
·reducing consumers´ choice; and
·reducing transparency to the public in favour of vested corporate interests.

In November 2012, DG SANCO (the EU Directorate responsible for health and consumer affairs) issued an updated draft proposal for a new Plant Reproductive Material (PRM) Regulation which will replace numerous directives in favour of the large seed houses preventing gardeners and farmers from exchanging seeds and growing heritage varieties. DG SANCO’s proposals fly in the face of the recommendations of the EU Agricultural and Environmental Directorates who stress the policy proposal will result in the loss of plant biodiversity as well as affecting the rights of the grower. Despite the views of the other EU Directorates, DG SANCO is now pushing for a vote in favour of their proposals.

This is a major threat to the future of Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library and its network of enthusiastic and dedicated growers who are helping to preserve long lost varieties of plants that our ancestors grew for food. Many of these plants may have characteristics that are needed for future plant breeding in order to adapt to new pests and diseases and climate change.

This EU Directive, if approved, will result in a ban on future such activity unless every seed is registered and has an annual license paid for each variety. In the case of Garden Organic, with as many as 800 this could result in a the charity having to spend around £800,000 per year. If this directive is applied it will also mean gardeners will not be able to give seeds to their friends unless they are registered and licensed.




======Ends===========

For media contact Real Seeds: 01239 821107

Email: info@realseeds.co.uk & cc urbanpermaculture.co.cc@gmail.com

For more information see: http://open-seeds.org/bad-seed-law/


====================


References

(1) https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer/overvi ... d-law%252F

(2) http://www.hashtags.org/analytics/saveseed/

(3) http://bifurcatedcarrots.eu/2013/04/con ... nt-nissou/

(4) http://www.transitionlinks.org/?p=2445

(5) http://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedlaw.html

(6) http://www.soilassociation.org/news/new ... -varieties

(7) http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/news/ne ... php?id=907


================






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Please also contact page admins of relevant pages with 1000+ users asking them to _share_ on their pages. The call to action should be to share, likes are not much use.

Dear page admin please share this on your page


Regulation on Marketing of Plant Reproductive Material , A New Seed Law goes before the EU commissioners on May 6th 2013

If passed it would mean no seed can be sold, or potentially even given for free, to anyone anywhere in the EU unless it is registered on the EU Plant List as an ‘approved’ variety. This would effectively outlaw Heritage seeds in the EU.

Act now: http://open-seeds.org/bad-seed-law/


Websites
Got your own website? Include the following HTML to make it easy for people
to email the commissioners. Know a bit of HTML? Get in touch to help with open-seeds.org

Just click the button, then fill in your own email subject:

Nothing happened? Click here





Just click the button, then fill in your own email subject:

<a href="mailto:jose-manuel.barroso@ec.europa.eu?cc=&bcc=Catherine.Ashton@ec.europa.eu,Viviane.Reding@ec.europa.eu, joaquin.almunia@ec.europa.eu, Siim.Kallas@ec.europa.eu,Neelie.Kroes@ec.europa.eu, Antonio.Tajani@ec.europa.eu, Maros.sefcovic@ec.europa.eu,Olli.Rehn@ec.europa.eu, Janez.Potocnik@ec.europa.eu, Andris.Piebalgs@ec.europa.eu,Michel.Barnier@ec.europa.eu, Androulla.Vassiliou@ec.europa.eu, Algirdas.semeta@ec.europa.eu, karel.de-gucht@ec.europa.eu, Maire.Geoghegan-Quinn@ec.europa.eu, Janusz.Lewandowski@ec.europa.eu,Maria.Damanaki@ec.europa.eu, Kristalina.Georgieva@ec.europa.eu, Gunther.Oettinger@ec.europa.eu,Johannes.Hahn@ec.europa.eu, Connie.Hedegaard@ec.europa.eu, stefan.Fule@ec.europa.eu,Laszlo.Andor@ec.europa.eu, Cecilia.Malmstrom@ec.europa.eu, Dacian.Ciolos@ec.europa.eu,Tonio.Borg@ec.europa.eu,urbanpermaculture.co.cc@gmail.com&subject=&body=Dear Commissioner I am writing to you to appeal to you to object to the SANCO-sponsored legislation on the licencing and sale of seeds. I understand that you have had no part in drafting it, but these proposals would make it impossible to licence or to sell, cultivate or swap thousands of ancient and heritage varieties of seeds, a bank of genetic diversity that has been built up over many generations. Instead they would place seeds and cultivar-development irrevocably in the hands of a few multi-national companies. We would lose the knowledge, experience and diversity of our rich seed heritage in exchange for half-a-dozen bland varieties suited to agro-industrial production, and greater profits for multi-nationals. As a Commissioner, I would imagine that you will be concerned about the erosion of rural and local knowledge, resources and genetic diversity that this regulation would represent. It would take away people's ability to develop their own varieties suited to local conditions, climates, and culinary heritage, and put it in the hands of a few big companies. This would then erode the possibilities for people to work their way out of poverty. As a Commissioner I am sure that you know of the rich European heritage of local seeds and varieties and the importance they have for our heritage, culture and identity. I also draw your attention to the costs of policing the legislation. It seems likely that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of individual gardeners and small traders would defy such a ban. Enforcing it adequately would draw huge resources from European states that can ill afford it. If it is presumed that the legislation would not be vigorously enforced, it begs the question: Is it fit for purpose? I appeal to you to reject these odious proposals when they are put forward on 6th May. I have enclosed a link for your further reading.http://saatgutpolitik.arche-noah.at/fil ... rbrief.pdf Yours sincerely">
<img alt="Click HERE to send email" src="http://open-seeds.org/wp-content/upload ... 4/send.jpg" width="240" height="134" /></a>

Nothing happened? http://open-seeds.org/bad-seed-law/#Custom


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[Lord Beria3]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/63867950/EEC-1942

You might want to read this... conference in 1942 about the proposed EEC.

Sound familar??!

[featherstick]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/63867950/EEC-1942

You might want to read this... conference in 1942 about the proposed EEC.

Sound familar??!

Erm, is there an exec summary? Because I can't be arsed going through it looking for whatever point you're trying to make.

On a different note, has anyone had a response from a commissioner yet?

[emordnilap]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/63867950/EEC-1942

You might want to read this... conference in 1942 about the proposed EEC.

Sound familar??!

Erm, is there an exec summary? Because I can't be arsed going through it looking for whatever point you're trying to make.

On a different note, has anyone had a response from a commissioner yet?

Nope.

[Blue Peter]

"On a different note, has anyone had a response from a commissioner yet?"

No, though I only emailed two,


Peter.

[sam_uk]

Under pressure #EU have re-drafted seed law: http://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedlaw.html Exempting individuals. Partial #Win! Keep up pressure 2 #SaveSeed supply

Still kills Real Seed company, but progress..

[sam_uk]

Hi All

Good news on this, several drafts have been leaked over the last couple of days, each an improvement on the last.

First they allowed gardeners to exchange seed

They were re-drafting as late as Sunday night, when they included a new category 'niche market'

If you have <10 employees. and less than 2m euro turnover you are allowed to market heritage seeds article 36:1(a)

Overall it's a big win. Still some analysis to do, particularly around what large farmers can do but on the whole it looks positive.

Unclear of course how much effect lobbying efforts had on all this, it may be that they would have spontaneously decided to improve it at the last minute anyway, who knows..

But Featherstick you might like to know that your 'odious proposals' text has been sent to the Commissioners by more than 900 people

The law is here: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer ... php_en.pdf

[biffvernon]

I love the EU.

It gets things wrong some of the time and gets things right at other times, but usually it eventually muddles it's way to a better world than we would manage otherwise.

The UK government would have us continue the use of neonicotinoids. Fortunately the EU Commission have decided otherwise.

[JohnB]

I e-mailed all the UK MEPs, without giving my address. I've had some replies asking for my address to make sure I'm their constituent, but have had 3 proper replies so far. They seem to think they will be voting on it.

Dear JohnB,

Many thanks for writing to Keith about this important issue, who has asked me to respond on his behalf.

Like you, Keith, and the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, are very concerned about the Commission's proposal to create a single EU wide regulation on seed production and certification.

The Greens believe the current proposal for an EU Regulation "On the production and marketing available on the market of plant reproductive material" will be very damaging for small breeders and seed savers who are unlikely to be able to meet the restrictive certification criteria or afford the costly registration fees. Farmer's rights will be further curtailed, as they will no longer be able to re-use or exchange seeds on a local level, instead having to register as "professionals" - this risks excluding farmers fully from the seed sector, and placing the marketing and certification of seeds fully in the hands of the seed industry.

However, the knock-on effect of this marketing limitation will be the watering down of years of seed heritage and the endangering of the genetic diversity within farming systems. In order to preserve genetic and biodiversity within agricultural systems we need heterogenic plant material, which carries greater genetic variety than most of the certified varieties. Breeding companies within the seed industry concentrate on certain aspects of the genetic code, and so reduce diversity.

The Greens/EFA Group are pressing for reform in seed production and marketing legislation which would exempt small-scale farmers, NGOs and small breeders working with open pollinating and heterogenic material. On a Green initiative, the Commission has been running an EU- wide program for the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources which allowed NGOs and small breeders to coordinate their activities across the EU. The Greens were also responsible for a number of reports in the Parliament on seed marketing laws, introducing some exemptions for the marketing of traditional seeds which are in danger of disappearing.

However, Keith believes the Commission's proposal is a backwards step. The Greens are calling for the regulation to be limited to commercial activities, with small seed enterprises only being obliged to comply with basic rules, and seed exchange or seed saving activities being kept out of the regulation altogether.

Keith is particularly concerned that vegetable and forestry seeds should be excluded from certification and registration. As the letter you attached highlights, this Regulation could be a direct threat to agro-ecology. Recently, Keith spoke at an agro-forestry event at the European Parliament, stressing the importance of integrating shrubs and trees into local farming methods, which may come under threat with the implementation of this proposal. Keith is passionate about biodiversity in farming systems, which, as he stressed, "is in stark contrast to the development of modern farming structures which rely on fossil fuels, agrochemical inputs, artificial fertilizers and pesticides and hybrid seeds. Unlike intensive farming models, agro forestry presents a sustainable form of farming with the potential to enhance local food production and economic and social resilience.” The full speech can be found here: http://www.keithtaylormep.org.uk/2013/0 ... uary-2013/

Keith works very hard to promote local growing initiatives and local food production throughout the South East of England. To read more about Keith's work on food and farming, please visit his website: http://www.keithtaylormep.org.uk/category/food-farming/

The Commission will be voting on the proposal on 6th May. If it is accepted, it will then forwarded to the European Parliament and Council following co-decision procedure. Please be assured that elected MEPS will be able to discuss, amend and vote on this proposal in plenary. There is a helpful overview of the 'co-decision' process and how EU decisions are made on the European Union website:

http://europa.eu/about-eu/basic-informa ... dex_en.htm

If the proposal is accepted by the Commission, Keith and the Greens/EFA Group will continue to fight against the seed industry's potential monopoly on seeds and plant reproductive material, and will demand that local seed exchanges are exempt from this regulation. Please be assured that Keith is committed to maintaining our rich diversity in local seeds and plants, for the crucial role it plays in promoting sustainable agriculture, local food production and global food security.

Thank you again for taking the time to write to Keith about this issue. Please don't hesitate to get back in contact if you have any further questions.

Kind regards
Katy Cadwallader

Constituency Caseworker
Office of Keith Taylor MEP
Green Party MEP for South East England
The European Parliament
Rue Wiertz
1047 Brussels, Belgium

Thank you for your email and for raising your concerns about the upcoming EU draft legislation on the licensing and sale of seeds.

The European Commission (i.e. the EU civil service) has not yet formally made their proposal, and so I have not seen the content. Once the draft proposal is published it will not become law until MEPs and national ministers agree it, following a co-decision process which will likely take several months of scrutiny, amendment, and negotiation.

I understand there is a leaked version of the proposal circulating on the internet which proposes that all seeds need to be registered, even old, conservation, or amateur varieties - and this is what is causing concern amongst the amateur growing community. Leaked versions are often very early drafts, and may not necessarily reflect the final proposal, which is due to be published next week. Once the draft law has been made public, if there are still measures which cause concern, my colleagues and I can table amendments to protect traditional, public domain plants.

As you can see, there is still time to make amendments but thank you for raising your concerns with me, and alerting me to this issue at this early stage.

Yours sincerely,
Linda McAvan MEP

Dear constituent,

Thank you for your email to Struan Stevenson MEP regarding the Commission's Proposal on Plant Reproductive Material, due to be published today, 6 May.

I am afraid the information that you have been provided with is incorrect and Conservative MEPs will indeed have an opportunity to amend and vote on changes to this legislation via co-decision/ordinary legislative procedure (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/aboutparl ... edure.html).

With regard to your specific points concerning the contents of the Commission's proposal you will understand that, as we have not yet seen or read the final proposal, we cannot comment. However, please rest assure that Struan will of course bear your points in mind when he does have the opportunity.

I hope you find this information helpful and please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Best wishes,
Catriona

Catriona Meehan
Office of Struan Stevenson MEP
President of the Iraq Delegation
Senior Vice-President of the Fisheries Committee
European Parliament
Brussels

[featherstick]

Overall it's a big win. Still some analysis to do, particularly around what large farmers can do but on the whole it looks positive.

Unclear of course how much effect lobbying efforts had on all this, it may be that they would have spontaneously decided to improve it at the last minute anyway, who knows..

But Featherstick you might like to know that your 'odious proposals' text has been sent to the Commissioners by more than 900 people

The law is here: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer ... php_en.pdf

: ) I'm so proud!