Seeds, Sovereignty & Struggle: The Ongoing Battle Against UPOV & Seed Privatisation
Peasants and rural communities everywhere know the critical role seeds play in sustaining food production. Seeds, alongside land and water, are among the most fundamental agricultural resources. The idea that seeds should circulate freely is so deeply rooted in human societies that until 1960, national seed systems were universally based on the principle that stored seeds should be available to anyone needing them.
However, this changed with the establishment of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) in 1961, which sought to privatise seeds and crop varieties. Resistance to this notion was immediate and strong. For the first seven years, only a handful of European countries supported UPOV, with no other nation willing to ratify it.
Today, the assault on people’s seeds has intensified. Efforts to regulate, standardise, and privatise seeds aim to expand corporate markets, facilitated by plant breeders’ rights, patent laws, seed certification schemes, variety registries and marketing laws. These measures, regardless of their form, serve to legalise exploitation, dispossession and destruction. But communities around the world are fighting back.