The European Green party has launched a campaign for 'seed freedom' ahead of parliamentary voting on revised EU seed legislation. The campaign centres around a website and petition, aimed at stimulating a groundswell of public support to challenge the unpopular laws devised by the EU Commission's consumer affairs bureau DG Sanco.

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Renewed discussion of seed regulation reforms in the European Parliament and a high-profile visit from environment campaigner and philosopher Vandana Shiva late last month served to rekindle interest in the controversial reforms.

In May, discussion of the proposals in the European Commission led small companies, seed banks, heritage growers and those in the organic sector to rally in opposition to the changes, which are supported by big farm lobbyists and the seed industry. As a result of action from small players and environment groups, certain concessions were granted, but the EU Greens maintain that current reforms are "currently being shaped by a handful of corporations, privileging uniformity, monocultures and privatisation without any basis in science or respect of natural cycles."

The DG Sanco reforms have been opposed by the two EU directorates that they will directly affect – the EU's agriculture and environmental arms, DG Agri and DG Envi. These bodies claim the designs will impinge upon the rights of the grower and could reduce plant biodiversity in the bloc.

On Wednesday 2nd October, working together with Vandana Shiva's India-based seed sovereignty NGO Navdanya, Green parliamentarians launched their bid for "radical change of the proposed legislation" on the commercialisation and production of seeds. Greens branded the proposed measures "a threat to Food Security and Democracy" and called on EU citizens to reject them.

The Greens claim that, over a number of decades, European legislation has increasingly restricted access to seeds, especially since industrial agriculture has become the dominant model of farming. Current seed laws, as well as those being proposed by DG Sanco, are devised to benefit a few large seed houses that furnish the current agricultural paradigm, they say.

As a result of complicated and costly tests, registration procedures and restrictions, smaller farmers and growers and those producing traditional and heritage seeds will be muscled out and increasingly marginalised under the new regulatory regime. Organic and small farm groups have said this will affect the diversity of seed available in Europe, further threatening lesser-used varieties and diminishing overall agricultural diversity.

Agricultural diversity 'imperative for human survival'

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation maintains that such diversity is essential if humanity hopes to cope with the effects of climate change and disease, or achieve global food security, through providing richer genetic resources that will enable crops to respond well to certain climatic conditions or provide vital disease resistance.

In April this year, FAO Deputy Director-General Dan Gustafson said, "FAO believes that adaptation of the agriculture sector is not merely an option, but an imperative for human survival, and genetic resources will form an essential part of any adaptation strategy."

FAO estimates that over the course of the last century, about 75 percent of crop genetic diversity has been lost as farmers worldwide switched to genetically uniform, high-yielding varieties and abandoned multiple local varieties. Although the varieties do carry certain benefits, the shift has resulted in more homogenous, less hardy and often less nutritious crops.

Speaking at the launch of the EU Greens' campaign, which coincided with Mahatma Ghandi's birthday, Professor Shiva said, "We are reminded that in the spirit of Gandhi, civil disobedience is necessary, when laws undermine our rights, depriving us of our common goods.  Seeds are such a common good. They are a gift of nature and the result of centuries of hard work of farmers around the planet, who have selected, conserved and bred seeds. They are the source of life and the first link in our food chain."