Written by Yasmin Madsen - Editors: Anastasia Eginoglou, Kata Krnács
Seeds are the basis of (most) plant life.
Seeds have also been transformed into a commodity that has been warped by political questions of who owns seeds, who has access to seeds, how seeds are shared, and how seeds are produced. Historically, seeds were often kept by farmers and shared amongst themselves, but the reality of how they are owned and distributed today is far from this local conservation and exchange.
The monopolisation of seeds driven by capitalism is ever present today. There are four agrochemical corporations that have control of 51% of global seed sales (Gliessman, 2022), thus controlling the majority of these sales. Bayer/Monsanto, BASF, Corteva and Sinochem have the right to patent, genetically modify and own these seeds.
Their ownership, directly correlated with the rise of industrial agriculture, has led to a decline in seed diversity, an impact on human and environmental health and a loss of cultural knowledge. Another consequence is legal battles involving local farmers, who are entrapped in the system that benefits the big corporations.
In the documentary, ‘SEED: The Untold Story’, a farmer describes his experience wherein he refused to use a GMO wheat crop, which an agrochemical firm owned. However, due to neighbouring farms using the GMO seed, and through natural dispersal, the farmer who had refused to use the patented seed accidentally had these modified and patented seeds on his land. This gave reason for the agrochemical company to sue him for unauthorised use of their seeds. Importantly, discourse on the neocolonial aspect of GMO seeds highlights how the predominantly US or European-owned agrochemical firms assert that Western science and GMO technology are necessary for the Global South, and yet examples have shown that it is not the case.
The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa writes that the introduction of Monsanto GMO cotton in Burkina Faso in 2008 led to the production of poor-quality cotton that ultimately negatively affected the lives of two million cotton farmers. These agrochemical firms’ insistence that their ownership of seeds is crucial for “Health for All, Hunger for None” (Bayer’s slogan) masks the true desire for personal profit.
The negative impacts of industrial agriculture have prompted the necessity for seed sovereignty. Seed sovereignty is defined as the ability of farmers to breed, save and exchange seeds that are not patented or genetically modified by seed giants. So what does the movement towards seed sovereignty look like?
The National Network of Free Seeds of Colombia, which is a collection of grassroots organisations fighting for food sovereignty, has been at the forefront of various activities such as in-situ seed conservation, building seed houses, organising seed exchanges, keeping up to date with seed legislation, as well as various pedagogical activities.
The Network of Guardians of Maize and Biodiversity in southern Mexico provides training courses, seed exchange fairs and establishes seed banks.
Various Native nations in North America have emphasised the importance of community gardens to reclaim their seeds and to help support the intergenerational transfer of knowledge. For instance, the Dream of Wild Health urban farm in Minneapolis focuses on recovering and sharing knowledge on indigenous food.
Navdanya, a non-profit started in India started as a seed bank to store and reintroduce seeds to rural areas also focuses on education and research on seed diversity.
From these examples, it is clear that community is at the heart of many sovereignty projects. Local resilience and community building are what drive this movement. I am reminded of Bell Hooks' book “Belonging: A Culture of Place”, where she describes how her homeland in the Appalachian region of Kentucky was a place where they were forced to be self-reliant as the dominant white supremacist culture excluded them. This community had power and governance of their own lives, away from the “system of imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy”.
The fight for seed sovereignty is similar to these local marginalised groups that have been oppressed by the dominant white, capitalist culture in that they can use their community to empower their movement and to fight for ownership of their own seeds.
References:
Genova, A. (2020). Seed saving movement calls for seeds to be publicly owned. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/28/seed-saving-movement-calls-for-seeds-to-be-publicly-owned
Gliessman, S. (2023). The stories of seed sovereignty. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 47(5), 643–645. https://doi-org.proxy-ub.rug.nl/10.1080/21683565.2023.2182526
Hernández Vidal, N. (2022). Pedagogies for seed sovereignty in Colombia: epistemic, territorial, and gendered dimensions. Agric Hum Values 39, 1217–1229 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-10310-9
Hill, C. G. (2017). Seeds as Ancestors, Seeds as Archives: Seed Sovereignty and the Politics of Repatriation to Native Peoples. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 41(3). http://dx.doi.org/10.17953/aicrj.41.3.hill, Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3ff5v7g2
Hooks, B. (2008). Belonging: A Culture of Place (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203888018
Gliessman, S. (2023). The stories of seed sovereignty, Agroecology and
Sustainable Food Systems, 47:5, 643-645, DOI: 10.1080/21683565.2023.2182526
Trauger, A. (2015). Seed sovereignty as civil disobedience in northern India?. In Food Sovereignty in International Context (pp. 106-124). Routledge.
Viswanathan, L. (2021). Saving Seeds: Protecting the Planet and Seed Sovereignty. https://indigenousclimatehub.ca/2021/07/saving-seeds-protecting-the-planet-and-seed-sovereignty/