The Rural Voice, 2005-02, Page 101
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6 THE RURAL VOICE
Jeffrey Carter
Seed savers losing ground
Jeffrey
Carter is a
freelance
journalist
based in
Dresden,
Ontario.
Farmers across Canada have a
common interest in proposed changes
to Canada's Plant Breeder's Rights
(PBR) legislation. It's being updated
to meet standards laid out by the
International Union for the Protection
of New Varieties of Plants.
The changes would extend seed
patent rights from 20 to 25 years.
More important are potential impacts
on the right of farmers to save their
own seed.
That "right" may be taken away.
The language developed by the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency
(CFIA), the government arm that will
oversee the coming changes, has
come up with a new term — "farmers'
privilege" — to describe on-farm seed
saving practices.
It's an important detail.
A right can be described as a "just
claim," often based on longstanding
precedent. A privilege, however, can
be defined as a right that is granted —
and, consequently, something that
may also be taken away.
This concern is behind the National
Farmers Union campaign of recent
weeks. The organization wants to
alert Canadian farmers to their belief
that the proposed legislative changes
may not as benign as they're
sometimes portrayed.
"We're careful to tell farmers they
need to make the distinction of what
is a farmer's right and what is a
farmer's privilege ... In granting a
privilege they're building this little
fence to surround farmers with and
that area may become smaller and
smaller," NFU executive director
Terry Pugh says.
The room for farmers to
manoeuver, when it comes to farm -
saved seed, has already shrunk.
There are the measures in place
restricting the sale of common seed
for planting purposes. A more recent
innovation has been the introduction
of TUA's (technology use agree-
ments) that restrict farmers from
saving seed.
Seed breeding companies do need
some of the rules. There are
considerable costs associated with
variety development and without a
payback to the private developers,
there would be little incentive for
them to invest in the first place.
Still, the NFU has a point. With
federal government and other public
institutions abandoning their plant
breeding programs, the only
remaining real competition to the
private companies is the right of
farmers to save their own seed from
one year to the next.
An argument should also be made
for the government to reinvest in the
private seed variety development.
While private sector work is
important, it's driven primarily by the
desire by companies to earn a return
from their investment. Breeders
funded solely by the public sector are
open to other motivations, such as a
desire to provide direct benefits to
farmers or to society as a whole.
The time to influence decisions is
drawing to a close. According to the
CFIA website, Canadians have until
March 8, 2005 to participate in the
consultative process. There's an
internet option but I suggest a written
submission, signed and dated, might
have a greater impact. These can be
sent to the Canadian Food Inspection
Agency, c/o Seed Sector Review, 59
Camelot Drive, Ottawa, Ontario,
K I A -0Y9.
Word concerning the proposed
changes is getting out. In Huron
County, for instance, a resolution was
passed at the recent joint corn, soy-
bean and wheat annual meeting in
Holmesville. It simply asks that
farmers continue to be able to save
their seed.
Letters from individual farmers
also carry weight. No matter what
your opinion may be, it counts for
nothing unless it is expressed.
To learn more (or perhaps become
more confused), go to the CFIA
website and click on the "Plant
Breeders' Rights Consultation" link.0