Citizens of the world, reclaim our seed!
Let us celebrate International Seed Day, not World Intellectual Property Day
#InternationalSeedDay
We are living in extraordinarily challenging times. The COVID-19 health crisis has fomented an economic crisis, and exposed the underlying risks, fragilities, and inequities in our food systems. It is essential for us to reclaim our seed diversity, biodiverse ecosystems and bio-cultural landscapes, that support nutritious local food systems and millions of livelihoods. In light of the pandemic, we demand the full protection and fulfillment of the rights of small-scale farmers and indigenous peoples across our planet.
On April 26th, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) celebrate the World Intellectual Property Day 2020 under the slogan “Innovate for a green future”.
We the undersigned organisations condemn this extremely one-sided view and are shocked by the unashamed green-washing, praising the plant variety protection system under UPOV and patents as a driver for a green future. The opposite is the case. Patents and UPOV based plant variety protection systems are rather a hindrance to innovation, especially innovation by farmers who have created agrobiodiversity, which is vital for the survival of all of us.
UPOV is part of the global architecture of intellectual property laws, alongside seed laws, that support and entrench current industrial food and monoculture agricultural systems. This system is based on the commodification of nature and knowledge, and severely undermines farmers’ rights and peasant farming systems, erodes biodiversity, and has caused great destruction to the earth’s life-supporting systems. Industrialised agricultural production and food supply chains have placed the future of the planet and humans at great risk, as we are now experiencing. Indeed, the COVID-19 outbreak points to the complex interactions between deforestation, reduced biological diversity, ecosystem destruction, and human health and safety, largely driven by the globalised agricultural and industrial corporate-controlled food system, of which UPOV is an intrinsic part.
We oppose the assertion that intellectual property rights over seed equates with facilitating innovation in plant breeding and “promotes resilient crops in support of global food security”. The system that the WIPO and UPOV is promoting instead impedes, undermines, restricts and devalues local innovation and traditional knowledge systems. Their model is particularly inappropriate for the farmers and indigenous peoples of the South, who depend largely on age-old systems of seed saving and exchanges. Indeed, it is farmers’ ingenuity and innovations that have fed the world, produced resilient crops and provided healthy and nutritious food, and continue to do so even in times of crises.
Agribusiness continues to mislead the global public, despite its role in having brought about the climate and ecological crises we find ourselves in, as illustrated by the intensities and frequencies of infectious diseases. Corporations must not be allowed to reinvent themselves, portraying themselves as saviors, when they have created the problem in the first place. Neither should they be rewarded with intellectual property rights that commodifies and monopolises seeds and undermines farmers’ rights.
Across the globe, poor and vulnerable communities severely impacted by the gross inequalities in the world, are scrambling to secure access to healthcare, medicine and food as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to infect and takes hundreds of thousands lives. At the same time, local food systems are being reorganised and restructured by social movements across the world, in the interests of people and planet. These movements are finding ways to link small producers to local communities, and to continue providing food even under difficult circumstances, offering a glimpse of what new and more resilient food systems may look like in the future.
This is an opportunity for us to reinvent our relationship with each other, the earth, and all that call this planet home. If ever there was a time needing our collective imagination and action, it is NOW. If there ever was a time demanding us to build on the innovations of local food producers around the world, it is NOW.
We call on every citizen, every nation, to celebrate and protect our common heritage, and to join together to demand a just transition into a life with and beyond COVID-19. Central to this is the immediate need to localise and democratise our food systems and the farmer seed systems that underpin them.
We honour those who have maintained and innovated agricultural biodiversity over the last 10 000 years, and continue to put diverse and healthy food on our tables. Biodiversity and cultural diversity are intricately linked, and are a result of generations of co-evolution.
On this day, we honour the indigenous peoples’, peasant and food sovereignty movements, and stand together urging us all to act and support a radical transformation of increasingly globalized and privatised food systems towards resilient agroecological systems based on seed and food sovereignty.
On this day, we celebrate the knowledge and practices of seed custodians, smallholder farmers, informal traders, landless peoples, farm workers, waste workers, care workers, and those that ensure all are able to feed and nourish themselves and their families.
On this day, we celebrate World International Seed Day,
NOT World Intellectual Property Day
#InternationalSeedDay
A Call to Action
This week, we call on you to contribute to building and safeguarding a world and life we want. We urgently need to create circular economies, ecologically-based agriculture, and localized food systems, that build resilience at all levels. This requires governments to redirect and institutionalise agricultural subsidies and research investments towards agroecology, and to invest in and support farmer seed systems and local supply chains. All seed and agriculture laws and policies must be reassessed and redrafted to support such food systems. Barriers to diversity must be removed, particularly those over agricultural genetic resources, and must not inhibit the full and free use and exchange of agricultural varieties and breeds amongst peasants, their communities or public breeders.
Another food system is possible! Together, we can resist an encroaching privatised seed system and celebrate agroecological production and localised food systems.
Organisations can sign on to endorse this statement by clicking here
- Share using the hashtags #InternationalSeedDay not #WorldIPDay
- Advocate (e.g.write to your government, issue a press statement) for the realisation of farmers’ rights, the recognition and support for farmer-managed seed systems, and the removal of all UPOV-based PVP laws.
- Mobilise resources to invest in agroecology and localised supply chains.
- Innovate! Share your ideas, or share visions and innovations of others to mobilise a collective commons, beyond private ownership
- Buy local! Support local farmers - they are our life-blood.
- Share seed! Participate in seed sharing networks – our seeds are our future.
- Celebrate! Share stories of farmer innovations.
We are the seed! plant a seed everyday, share photos, and tell us the story of the seed!
#InternationalSeedDay not #WorldIPDay
"Seed is life, and nourishes many lives. Because seeds support life, no single person or group should claim ownership of them. Seeds should be freely accessed, so that they could be used, conserved, protected, and improved upon, especially by farmers.
Gilbert Manlapig, smallholder farmer, Philippines
Organisations can endorse this statement by clicking here
Endorsements
International
Association for Plant Breeding for the Benefit of Society (APBREBES)
Community Alliance for Global Justice (CAGJ)
ETC Group
Global Justice Now!
GRAIN
International Tree Foundation
Jeunes Volontaires pour l’Environnement (JVE International)
Third World Network (TWN)
Thousand Currents (formerly IDEX)
World Neighbors
Regional
Alianza Biodiversidad
African Biodiversity Network (ABN)
Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA)
Association Ouest Africaine pour le Développement de la Pêche Artisanale (ADEPA)
Coalition pour la Protection du Patrimoine Génétique Africaine (COPAGEN)
Comité Ouest Africain de Semences Paysannes (COASP)
Comparing and Supporting Endogenous Development (COMPAS Africa)
Colectivo de Semillas de América Latina
Eastern and Southern Africa Pastoralist Network (ESAPN)
Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers Forum (ESAFF)
Fahamu Africa
Faith & Justice Network of the Mano River Basin (FJN)
Farm-Saved Seeds Network (FASSNET)
Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa (FECCIWA)
Friends of the Earth Africa (FoEA)
Groundswell West Africa (GWA)
Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC)
Institut Africain pour le Développement Economique et Social (INADES-Formation)
Institut Panafricain pour la Citoyenneté, les Consommateurs et le Développement (CICODEV Africa)
La Via Campesina SEA
Network of Farmers’ and Agricultural Producers’ Organizations of West Africa (ROPPA)
North African Food Sovereignty Network (Africa)
Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Association
Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific (PAN AP)
Plate-forme Régionale des Organisations Paysannes d’Afrique Centrale (PROPAC
Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE)
Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE)
Union Africaine des Consommateurs (UAC)
We are the Solution (WAS)
La Via Campesina South Asia (Regional)
National
Acción Ecológica (Ecuador)
Acción por la Biodiversidad (Argentina)
African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) (South Africa)
Agro-eco Philippines (Philippines)
Anafae (Honduras)
Anamuri (Chile)
Asociación de Agricultura Biodinámica (Chile)
Association of International Development And Research In Sustainability (IDRIS Association)(Malaysia)
Badan Bertindak Selamatkan Industri Padi dan Beras (Padi Rescue) (Malaysia)
Base-Is (Paraguay)
Biodiversity and Biosafety Coalition of Kenya (BIBA) (Kenya)
Biowatch South Africa (South Africa)
Cátedra Libre de Soberanía Alimentaria Río Cuarto (Argentina)
Cátedra Libre de la Escuela de Nutrición de la UBA (Argentina)
Ceccam (México)
Cenami Centro Nacional de apoyo a Misiones Indígenas (México)
Coalición Nacional de Redes y Organizaciones Ambientales (Honduras)
Colectivo Ecuador Libre de Transgénicos (Ecuador)
Colectiva K-Luumil X’ko’olelo’ob, Quintana Roo (México)
Colectivo por la Autonomía: Saberes Locales (México)
Colectivo Xa’aybej, Quintana Roo (México)
Comité de Derechos Humanos Sierra Norte de Veracruz (México)
ConCiencia Agroecológica 9 de Julio (Argentina)
Cooperativa de Trabajo Iriarte Verde LTDA (Argentina)
Cooperativa Semilla Austral (Chile)
Desmi, Chiapas (México)
Espacio Estatal de Defensa del Maíz Nativo de Oaxaca (México)
Filipino Farmers Seed Network (Philippines)
Fédération Agroécologique du Bénin (FAEB) (Benin)
Federación Costarricense para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (Fecon) (Costa Rica)
Fundación Constituyente XXI (Chile)
Fundación Cullunche (Argentina)
Fundación Pro Defensa de la Naturaleza y sus Derechos (Ecuador)
Grupo de Etnobiología-FCEyN-UBA (Argentina)
Grupo Semillas (Colombia)
Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) (Nigeria)
Indonesia for Global Justice-IGJ (Indonesia)
Instituto de Salud Socioambiental-Facultad de Ciencias Médicas-UNR (Argentina)
Ka Kuxtal Much Meyaj AC, Campeche (México)
Malaysian Food Security and Sovereignty Forum (FKMM) (Malaysia)
Malaysian Paddy Farmers Solidarity Association (PeSAWAH) (Malaysia)
Misioneros AC, Yucatán (México)
Much Kanan l’inaj, Quintana Roo (México)
Museo del Hambre (Argentina)
O GT Biodiversidade da Articulação Nacional de Agroecologia Assina (Brazil)
PAN India (India)
Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) (Malaysia)
Pertubuhan Alam Sekitar Sejahtera Malaysia (GRASS) (Malaysia)
Pinag-isang Lakas ng Mga Samahan ng Casiguran, Aurora (PIGLASCA) (Malayisa)
Productores y Campesinos Agroecológicos del municipio de El Limón, Jalisco (México)
Red de Coordinación en Biodiversidad (Costa Rica)
Red en Defensa del Maíz (México)
Red de Guardianes de Semillas (Ecuador)
Red de Mujeres Rurales (Costa Rica)
Red Mayense Guardianes y Guardianas de Semillas (México)
Red Por una América Latina Libre de Transgénicos (RALLT)
Réseau Africain pour le Droit à l'Alimentation (RAPDA) (Togo)
Revista Crisis (Ecuador)
Seminario Interdisciplinario sobre el Derecho a la Alimentación Adecuada de la Facultad de Derecho de la UBA (Argentina)
Sustainable Development Network (SUSDEN) (Malaysia)
Tanzanian Alliance for Biodiversity (TABIO) (Tanzania)
Uníon de Trabajadores de la Tierra (UTT) (Argentina)
UPREZ Unión Popular Emiliano Zapata (México)
Unión de Organizaciones de la Sierra Juárez de Oaxaca, SC (México)
Zambia Alliance for Agroecology and Biodiversity (ZAAB) (Zambia)
Fresh Eyes, UK
Transnational Institute (TNI)
SOLdePaz.Pachakuti
Entrepueblos/Entrepobles/Entrepobos/Herriarte
ATTAC Argentina
La Asamblea Veracruzana de Iniciativas y Defensa Ambiental
Both ENDS
Growth Partners Africa
PLANT (Partners for the Land & Agricultural Needs of Traditional peoples
FoodmattersZimbabwe
Cooperative and Policy Alternative Centre
South African Food Sovereignty Campaign
ACTU
Regional Schools and Colleges Permaculture Programme ReSCOPE)
Earth And Man Farm
Nature Tropicale ONG
Grupo de trabajo Suiza Colombia/Swiss Working Group on Colombia
MRA
Greener world Alliance
Noetic Business Consulting
Navdanya International
Farmers network south Africa
Seed Savers Network, Kenya www.seedsaverskenya.org
Soils Food and Healthy Communities (SFHC)
Rural Women Assembly (Zambia)
MASIPAG (Philippines)
Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labour Federation - BAFLF (Bangladesh)
Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform - MONLAR (Sri Lanka)
Lanka Farmer Forum - LFF (Sri Lanka)
Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee (Pakistan)
MAKAAM- Karnataka (India)
Sahayak Trust (India)
Women's Collective (India)
Women farmers Association (India)
Tamil Nadu Resource Team (India)
All India Union of Forest Working People (India)
Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers Movements (India)
Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha-KRRS (India)
Tamizhaga Vivasyigal Sangham - TVS (India)
SEEDS ACTION NETWORK - SAN Germany
Community Technology Development Trust (CTDT)
Freeflow
The Zambia Community Based Natural Resources Management Forum
University of South Africa
Scarborough Food Growers
Association Tunisienne des femmes Democrate/CNTMarche Mondiale des Femmes
Tunisian Association of small Peasant for sustainable Developement
Frente de Lucha por la Soberanía Alimentaria Argentina
Kenya Small Scale Farmers Forum
PELUM Zambia
Witness Radio Uganda
The Seed And Knowledge Initiative
African Children Empowerment
Enda Pronat
Asociacion ANDES
Food Sovereignty Ghana
Matungu Community Development Charity (MCDC)
Fondation Nouvelle Création
Friends of the Earth Sweden
Public Eye
La Via Campesina Africa
Assemble de Defensores Mayan Muuch’ Xiinbal’ (Mexico)
Association Yelemani
Bina Desa (Indonesia)
Centre for Human Rights Research & Advocacy (CENTHRA) (Malaysia)
Collectif Citoyen pour l'Agro-Ecologie (CCAE Burkina)
Comité Ouest Africain des Semences Paysannes - Burkina (COASP Burkina)
Consumers' Association of Penang (CAP) (Malaysia)
Eastern Cape Water Caucus
International seedday
KONPHALINDO (Indonesia)
Kumpulan Organik Kelantan. (Malaysia)
Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (MASIPAG)
Maharashtra Prabodhan Seva Mandal (India)
Majlis Tindakan Ekonomi Melayu Bersatu Berhad( MTEM) (Malaysia)
National Women Farmers and Worker Association (Bangladesh)
Natural Farming Association Malaysia (NFAM) (Malaysia)
ORRISSA (India)
RAEBIA. TIMOR-LESTE
Red Nacional de Acción Ecologista (Renace) (Argentina)
Sacred Earth
SANWAD (Indi)
Solidaritas Perempuan (Indonesia)
South African Water Caucus
Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI)
SRI-Mas (Malaysia)
SWISSAID
Tamil Nadu Organic Farmers Federation (India)
The Gaia Foundation
Farmers' Seed Network (China)
SHISUK
HoneyBush Communications
Bread of Freedom
Querbeet Leipzig e.V.
Orsha Wholesome Foods
Eco-Impact
FENEV Femmes Environnement Nature Entrepreneuriat Vert / RDC
African Volunteers Association
AFRIKAGRUPPERNA
AgriBio Services
ASEED Europe
Aula Verde
Aula Verde A.C.
Bahay Kalipay
Bioleft
Bread for all
Casa Cultural Trude Sojka
Comunidad Indigena de san Francisco Pichataro, Mich. Mexico
Consejo Civil Mexicano para la Silvicultura Sostenible
Crystal Clear Farm
EAST AND SOUTHERN AFRICA FARMERS FORUM
ESAFF
ESAFF Eswatini
ESAFF Lesotho
ESAFF SouthAfrica
Fastenopfer
German Seed Savers Association (VEN)
German Umbrella Organisation for Crop and Breed Diversity
Global Catholic Climate Movement - Myanmar
Iberoamérica Social
MIZU ECO-CARE
Mwaloni Investment Ltd.
National Biodiversity Centre, Ministry of Agriculture and Frests
NIRMAN
OHANA
Okinawa millet producer's union
Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Friends of the Earth Malaysia)
Sarilaya Inc. (Kasarian-Kalayaan) & Trimona Multi Purpose Cooperative Inc.
Save Seeds Japan
Scientists for Global Responsibility
Simiente Disidente
The Malaysian Alliance of Civil Society Organisations in the UPR Process (MACSA)
Universidad Nacional Experimental de la Seguridad
Valerie Browning
COASP-Mali (comité ouest africain des semences paysannes - Mali)
jardin d'oréda
Association pour le développement rural intégré, ADRI
Action pour le Développement Communautaire du Kwilu, ADCK asbl
Red Semillas Libres de Colombia
Association pour le Développement Intégré de Banda, ADRI/Banda
Semilla Nativa
Vicaria del Sur - Arquidiocesis de Florencia
Fundacion Amahia - Cultura y Comercio Justo
Fundación AGRECOL Andes
ECOLGREEN Agroecologia Urbana y Rural Sostenible
PROBIOMA
Red Manos Laboriosas de Colombia
Siembra
Grupo de semillas de Zapala
Círculo Argentino de Agroecología (CirAA)
Red Agroecológica del Austro.Ecuador
Corporación Compromiso
Regeneration International
Asociación Probivir
CORAMBIENTE
Asodiviso
Fundación Terra Nova
Justicia i Pau Barcelona
Organización Campesina Emiliano Zapata miembro de la Coordinadora Nacional Plan de Ayala (OCEZ-CNPA)
Fundación Semillas de Vida, A.C.
Asociacio de productores agroindustrisles municipio de sants barbara(asoapisanba)
CONTIOCAP – BOLIVIA
Red Chimpu Warmi
Centro de Comunicación y Desarrollo Andino Cochabamba, CENDA
Guardavidas Rosario
Promotor del inta Argentina
Nehuen Ñuque Mapu (fuerza de la madre tierra)simple Asociación
Grupo Derecho y Política Ambiental Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Vamos Por los Derechos
Movimiento Agroecologico de America Latina y el Caribe.
Regional Mexico Espora semillas
SOMOS Semilla Biblioteca Comunitaria de Semillas
Asociación de agricultura Biodinámica de Chile (ABDChile A.G)
Aula Ambiental Plaza De Mercado América
JAC Diana Turbay Vencedores
Escuela Agroecologica Reberde
Mulchén Consciente
CORPORACIÓN AMBIENTAL ANTIOQUIA VIVA
Elder lizcano
Sociedad Cooperativa de productores del Tianguis Orgánico Chapingo
Vimpervinca Alimentos Orgánicos, Naturales y Artesales Mexicanos
Instituto boliviano de investigacion forestal (IBIF)
Bullalayao rural improvement club
Movice Capítulo Madrid
AGROSOLIDARIA COLOMBIA
Enlace vital
Codeff
Colectivo Peñiwen
ANAPA
Red de Guardianas de Semillas de la Confluencia - Fecundando la Tierra libre
Anamaría castellanos
ASOCIACION MUNICIPAL DE USUARIOS CAMPESINOS - ANUC – PIEDECUESTA
Centro Crecer
INA WAKAN
Mongui Amasijos de la mona
Aso8
La Marraqueta
Asociación Red Mis Maravillosos Años Dorados del Adulto Mayor
Asociación Atucsara
Día del maíz en la ENTS-UNAM
Agua nómada ong
RedBioCol
CRIM UNAM
Casa cisne
CIMAS
Agua para Tod@s Agua para la Vida
USC
Ecoaldea Bello Amanecer
Pueblos en Camino, Abya Yala.
Agua y Vida: Mujeres, Derechos y Ambiente
Amar Es Más ONG
Graciela C. Barboza
Cooperativa de Servicios Multiples Municipios Unidos R.L
COLECTIVO DE DEFENSORAS Y DEFENSORES DE ANIMALES DEL QUINDIO
Red de semillas del Sur de Santander
ECOHUMUS SAS
Asociacion municipal de mujeres Campesinas de Gámbita, Santander- ASOMURCGAM
Jeunes Volontaires pour l'Environnement
RefugioTikabamba Escuela de Permacultura
Coop ltada de elect. de S. M. Sierras
Ecofeminisarte
Santuario del jaguar
Humus de lombriz
Fundación compartiendo caminos de paz
MNCI SOMOS TIERRA (Argentina)
Asociación campesina por la reparación y la paz del corregimiento la Habana
Wilka wayra
Todos somos San Gil
Club Rotario San Gil
Andres Gomez
Marcahuasi Casa del Protector
Colectivo Errante
GIA-Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Corporación TERRAINNOVA Territorios de innovación social
Finca El Silencio, Resguardo de Vida Silvestre y TerraViva
Asociacion Agroecologia y Fe
federation Lougouzena
Colectivo de Reservas Campesinas y Comunitarias de Santander
Organización Social y Política Tierra Libre
Nido de Aguilas
Asociacion manos Huchuyqosqo
CEPAL ONG
Comunidad y Sustentabilidad el Mexquite AC