Defending our Seed and Food Sovereignty 

Seeds are the first link in the food chain. They embody our heritage and enfold the future evolution of life. It is our inherent duty and responsibility to protect our seeds and pass them on to future generations. The cultivation of seeds and their free exchange among farmers have been the basis for maintaining biodiversity and our food security. Today, our seed sovereignty is threatened by intellectual property rights and new GMO technologies that have transformed seeds from a commons shared by farmers, to a commodity under the control and monopoly of agribusiness corporations. To have control over seeds is to have control over our lives, our food and our freedom.

Over the last few decades, GMO crops have been imposed in countries all over the world, advertised as a solution to food insecurity and the malnutrition crisis. However, hunger, disease and malnutrition have increased, while biodiversity has declined and toxins have spread. GMO imperialism has destroyed the lives and livelihoods of small farmers and biodiversity in centers of origin. These centers of origin of biodiversity are the cradles of the world’s food supply, and the protection against plague, climate challenges, natural disasters or other hindrances to food production.

In Mexico, which is the center of origin of maize, just as in other centers of biodiversity, there has been a long struggle by society and organized communities against this GMO imperialism threatening the subsistence and culture of native peoples. To date, Mexican society has achieved a ban on the planting of GM maize in Mexico through a class action lawsuit filed against the companies Bayer-Monsanto, Syngenta and Corteva Agriscience. This ban is still in force.

Recently, the Mexican government issued an executive order that proposes the gradual prohibition of the use of glyphosate and the use of GM maize in tortillas, a staple food. GMOs compromise access to healthy, sustainable, culturally appropriate foods free of genetically modified organisms. Faced with this decision, the U.S. government, based on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement (USMCA), has requested a dispute settlement panel to reject the order.

Mexico is the protector of the biocultural diversity developed over millennia, and shared by peasants around the world. Mexico therefore urgently requires our support and solidarity in the face of this GMO imperialism.

All over the world, citizens are rising against the unscientific, undemocratic, anti-ecological imposition of GMOs by corporations and the US government. The first generation of GMOs has failed. But corporations continue to impose gene-edited organisms, or new GMOs, in centers of diversity. They continue to shift their narrative towards framing nature and biodiversity as commodities for commercialization and patent monopolies.

Agribusiness and biotech giants are attempting to bypass biosafety regulations by quietly making changes to GMO regulation around the world, in order to promote these new GMOs under new acronyms, such as NBTs (New Breeding Techniques), NGTs (New Genomic Techniques), or TEAs (Techniques of Assisted Evolution). These new GMOs have been silently dovetailing into different countries’ existing agricultural legislation, with the aim still being patent monopolies in the hands of the big chemical and biotechnology giants.

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Seed Sovereignty Now and Forever:

The IFOAM Seeds Platform has partnered with Regeneration International to scale up a global movement toward seed sovereignty. Seeds are a critical component of truly regenerative systems. By joining forces, we shall be able to reach a vast network of people to bring a shift in benefit sharing of one of humanity’s most fundamental resources.

The genetic diversity of plants, animals, and other organisms human civilization has used over millennia for food and non-food purposes is vital to our well-being – but our biological heritage is at risk. Consolidation of seed sources under fewer and fewer large companies threatens the diversity of available varieties on the market and goes in the opposite direction to sustainability, fairness, and innovation. Utility patents on varieties limit the ability of breeders and farmers to save and improve varieties through their efforts. The disruptively rapid development of new GMOs (e.g., gene-edited varieties) without adequate risk assessment, safety controls, or traceability threatens the purity of stocks and risks genetic pollution. False or unproven promises of the benefits of gene editing and other new genomic techniques threaten to dupe people into making uninformed choices and accepting potentially unsafe varieties.In response to these challenges, the IFOAM Seeds Platform has conceived a strategy to coordinate efforts to co-create a true alternative to the current dominant paradigm of multinational consolidation of genetic resources and wealth with the corresponding loss of biodiversity. We aim to build a distributed, diversified alternative that puts power and responsibility in many people’s hands, increases quality and diversity through safe and appropriate techniques, and shares benefits more equitably.

This is a shared responsibility. We need to keep seed and breed varieties in the commons and in farmers’ hands. We must keep suitable genetic material available to breeders so that they can continue to develop high-quality varieties for use in organic and truly regenerative and socially equitable systems. We need to enable more breeders and farmers to revive, expand, and improve the base of available genetic resources so that we continue to scale up improvements in production. We need to engage the entire value chain to support all stakeholders to act interdependently toward these objectives.

The IFOAM Seeds Platform strategy includes four interactive work areas:

●     Expanding a Global Network of like-minded parties who can exchange ideas, unify messages, and collaborate using common communications platforms. All like-minded parties are invited to participate regardless of their official status or position regarding the term “organic.” The main criterion is a commitment to the Principles of Organic Agriculture.
●     Convening Policy Advocacy efforts, related broad-scale messaging and sector mobilization to: (i) regulate and control the use of GMOs and protect and facilitate the thriving of the organic sector; and (ii) enable the development/breeding and market availability of greater diversity and quantity of high-quality organic seeds.
●     Building a Research, Learning & Succession channel that: (i) connects researchers, experienced breeders, and new and aspiring breeders and entrepreneurs through internships and mentorship programs to assure that the current and next generation can grow and thrive; (ii) offers training for certification bodies, businesses, and governments in risk assessment, segregation and traceability, and detection methods.
●     Partnering in a Common Market Platform where breeders, seed producers, seed exchange networks, seed companies, farmers, farmers’ organizations, food processors, traders, brands, and retailers can work interdependently to improve organically compatible varieties’ diversity, quality, and quantity.

The IFOAM Seeds Platform is the only worldwide network on seeds. It is uniquely positioned to convene stakeholders globally to learn from each other and collaborate on common challenges; it is not a parallel or competing structure to existing organizations and networks. We invite more people to participate! For more information and to get involved, please click here.