The Rural Voice, 2005-07, Page 12John Beardsley
Protect farmers' right to save, reuse home-grown seed
John
Beardsley is
former farm
director of
CKNX radio
and has been
involved in
agribusiness
for many
years.
Thirty years ago if someone had
suggested that farmers would
someday not be allowed to save their
own seed they would have been
laughed out of the coffee shop. Now
that very idea is being considered to
be enshrined in law.
Last May while everyone was
busy planting, the Seed Sector
Review Advisory Committee
released their final report to the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
The report suggests among other
things that the elevators start
collecting royalties on farmer -saved
seed. The idea of collecting royalties
is just one proposal that the review
says would level the playing field
between private certified seed and
farmers' own seed. But it won't make
certified seed cheaper, it will make
common seed more expensive.
The report also suggests adding
several provisions to try and compel
farmers to use only certified seeds by
tying usage to crop insurance
premiums. It also suggests that farm-
ers should no longer have the right to
save their own seed. The review,
which can be read in its entirety at
www.seedsectorreview.com, has
garnered a great analysis by the
National Farmers Union of what they
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8 THE RURAL VOICE
think the review means to farmers.
This analysis is available at their
website www.NFU.ca .
If there was ever a time when
farmers needed to have the option of
saving their own seed it is now when
input costs are spiralling out of
control and commodity prices are
being ratcheted down to new lows.
There isn't much competition in the
marketplace for weed control
chemicals. Those products that do
have competition like the older
phenoxies or trifluralins are, not
surprisingly, still quite a bargain in
comparison to new chemistries such
as the sulfonureas.
Farmers can't control energy
prices or equipment costs as much as
they can seed costs. Hybrid corn
seed, which can't be saved, costs a lot
more per acre than self -pollinating
crops such as wheat and soybeans.
Corn crops that require this more
expensive seed and use more energy
to dry down are being planted on
much fewer acres in Ontario this year
as a result of these harsh economic
realities.
Seed companies have had much
better success in selling Roundup
Ready seeds because the patented
seed can't be reused and new seed
must bought each year. But this year
for the first time in many years
Roundup Ready seed acreage fell.
Farmers switched to non -genetically
modified varieties that can be grown
from less expensive common seed.
There has also been a switch to
white hilum soybean varieties that are
grown for human consumption such
as tofu or soymilk products over
beans which go into the feed market
as protein feed supplements. These
"identity preserved" or "IP" beans
must also be grown from certified
seed.
Canada's largest competitor in
soybean production is Brazil where
farmers do not grow much certified
seed except as their own seed crop
for new varieties. The seed industry
there has responded by selling
certified seed at a much higher price
for a much lower volume. How will
Canadian farmers be able to compete
with these low-cost producers if we
increase our cost of production?
Farmers who are generally law
abiding and honest have complied
with the increasing regulations
generated by both Roundup Ready
and "IP" bean production systems.
They also agree that the plant
breeders and their seed company
backers should be fairly compensated
for their work. "Brown baggers" who
commercially produce common seed
have cut into seed company profits.
But does that mean we have to
throw out farmers' right to save and
exchange seed? In 2002, Canada
signed the International Treaty on
Plant Genetic Resources for Food and
Agriculture. That Treaty affirms
farmers' right to save and re -use
seeds. It is a right farmers shouldn't
give away. It is one of the few checks
on keeping seed prices in line with
the end product price. Farmers need
to ask this minority federal govern-
ment to enshrine this right in law and
not allow the recommendations of the
seed sector review to water it down
or remove it altogether.0
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