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http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55792
Europe Sowing the Seeds of Hunger
By Stephen Leahy
LEIPZIG, Germany, May 26, 2011 (IPS) – Europe is facing a hungry future unless it changes agricultural policies and makes farmers the main participants in agriculture research, a new report has found. And there is little hope of meeting Europe’s recently announced goal of reducing the loss of biodiversity in ten years without making those changes.
France is suffering a severe drought but Europe’s seed laws prevent farmers from using a wider variety of seeds that could help them cope, says Michel Pimbert of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), non-profit research institute based in London.
“Our seed laws enforce uniformity. France can only plant approved seeds and those new varieties need a lot of water,” Pimbert, the author of the report told IPS.
“Farmers’ freedom to choose the seeds they plant and to use them to develop improved crop varieties and biodiversity-rich farming will be key to Europe’s response to climate change,” says Pimbert.
“Europe’s agriculture policies are preventing us from adapting to climate change. They are also bad for biodiversity since they force farmers to use an increasingly narrow range of seeds and animal breeds,” he says.
Farmers are handcuffed by a system of seed laws that enforce uniformity and protect patents and intellectual property. In practice this means only the most advanced varieties can be sold on the market. But under intellectual property laws this means farmers must pay for the right to use patented genes and proprietary technologies, mostly owned by large corporations.
Scientists are in the same trap and unable to utilise the full range of seed diversity, says Pimbert.
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