The implementation of the proposed amendments to the seeds and planting material legislation is related to:
- Mandatory registration and certification of all varieties, including old ones, which are now only used and preserved by small-size producers and private growers.
- The registration procedures are too complex and extremely financially impossible for the small-size agricultural producers and local gardeners.
- Replacement of the current directives, allowing each country to decide on its own national priorities, by the implementation of a new common regulation, mandatory for the entire EU.
These amendments will:
- Make it impossible for amateur gardeners, small and medium-sized seed producers to exchange seeds, and this includes bio-products as well;
- Condemn the majority of local and old plant varieties to extinction, because their registration will be extremely complicated, and if they are not registered, the selling, exchange or simply giving their seeds as presents will be forbidden;
- Eliminate the option for national exceptions in the seed legislation, because the regulation is mandatory for all EU-member states;
- Benefit the major seed companies, because only their products would be able to meet the required distinction, uniformity and stability tests.
“All the old varieties will be lost, the local tastes and aromas, cultural traditions, related to food and its production, will be gone along with them. The gradual unification will result in markets overflowing with even more cheep and tasteless foods from hybrid seeds”, explained Svetla Nikolova from the AGROLINK Association and representative of the “Let the Nature Remain in Bulgaria“ Coalition.
Consumers will lose their right of choice, when deciding what to put on their table. Old, fundamental varieties, such as the spelt, Bulgarian varieties of tomatoes, other vegetables and fruit will be lost for good. The exchange of seeds between agricultural producers will be criminalized. Vegetables will disappear from the villages and the rural areas will become even more depopulated.
The only benefits will be for the major agro-industrial corporations. Currently 75% of the seed production is in the hands of 10 companies. The new legislative changes will further aggravate this situation.
Currently the legislative initiative is in its starting phases. The European Commissioners may reject the changes, and therefore the “Let the Nature Remain in Bulgaria“ Coalition has sent an urgent letter to the Bulgarian commissioner Kristalina Georgieva.
The legislative changes, initiated by Directorate General for Health and Consumers (SANCO), are not supported by Directorates General “Agruiculture” and “Environment“. They are not supported by the Austrian Minister of Agriculture. “The small farmers must be excluded from the authorization requirements. Gardeners and farmers, maintaining the agrobiodiversity must be allowed to do that in the future as well“, says the Federal Minister of Agriculture of Germany Ilse Eigner. [2">
Plants are life. With the proposed sanitary requirements for the plants, the European Commission will limit the living diversity of plant species.
The “Let the Nature Remain in Bulgaria“ coalition demands from the Bulgarian government and European Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva to protect the rights of the Bulgarian farmers and consumers’ right to choose good fruit, to preserve the Bulgarian cultural heritage, related to the agrobiodiversity and fundamental traditions.
[1">Draft(Nov.2012): http://www.seed-sovereignty.org/PDF/EU_Comm_Draft_on_plant_reprodutive_material.pdf
[2"> http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/landwirtschaft-aigner-lehnt-saatgut-plaene-der-eu-ab/8113362.html
Are the private gardens and the old vegetable and fruit varieties heading for obsolescence?
