Seed laws, certification and standardization: outlawing informal seed systems in the Global South

Abstract

A series of relatively new seed laws are becoming novel mechanisms of accumulation by dispossession in agriculture. Many researchers have argued that intellectual property rights (IPR) laws that apply to living materials dispossess people of seeds by privatizing germplasm. What these authors have not addressed is the role that non-IPR-related seed laws play in the seed enclosure. I argue that we should pay more attention to the implications of seed laws and regulations that do not deal directly with IPR issues, because they are also being used to outlaw practices that are necessary for the functioning of informal seed systems. As a result, they are setting the stage for the further erosion of seed sovereignty and are becoming an additional threat to an already waning agro-biodiversity, with direct consequences for farmers’ livelihoods. These seed laws establish certification requirements and quality standards for the marketing and/or exchange of seeds. I use the example of contemporary Colombian seed politics to illustrate how and why certification requirements and quality standards are currently being introduced throughout the Global South. I draw on insights from the standards literature in order to explain the power, limitations and consequences of these laws.

Keywords:

• certification
• food sovereignty
• seed laws
• seed sovereignty
• seed systems
• standards
• Colombia

Acknowledgements

A special thank you to Jack Kloppenburg, without whose insights and wonderful mentorship this contribution would not have been possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹The term ‘germplasm' refers to all living tissues and genetic materials (such as seeds or a piece of stem) from which new plants and organisms can grow. Throughout the paper, I will use the terms ‘seed' and ‘germplasm' interchangeably, even though they are not exactly the same thing. All seeds are germplasm, but not all germplasm is necessarily a seed.

²A variety is regarded as distinct if it is ‘clearly distinguishable on one or more important characteristics from any other variety known in the Community', and as stable if it ‘remains true to the descriptions of its essential characteristics’ after successive propagation or multiplications or at the end of each cycle. If, ‘apart from a very few aberrations, the plants of which it is composed are (account being taken of the distinctive features of the reproductive systems of the plants) similar or genetically identical as regards the characteristics, taken as a whole, which are considered for this purpose’, a variety is also regarded as sufficiently uniform (Winge 2012).

³For more information on UPOV in Latin America, see Jaffe and Van Wijk (1995) and the UPOV website.

⁴Spanish original: Las semillas ilegales además de riesgos sanitarios, generan pobreza para el sector agropecuario, pues disminuyen la productividad de los cultivos, afectan el bolsillo de los campesinos y la seguridad alimentaria de los colombianos.

⁵Spanish original: Por cada semilla que nos decomisen, haremos que estas germinen y florezcan de nuevo, se multipliquen, se esparzan y caminen libremente con los agricultores por los campos de Colombia.

⁶The relative merits and efficacy of each of these strategies will vary between countries. A detailed discussion of this issue is beyond the scope of the paper, but the broader point is that people around the world are actively thinking about alternatives.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tamara Wattnem

Tamara Wattnem is currently a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Wisconsin Madison. She holds an MSc in agroecology from the same institution.