Election 2015: Talking about seed and trade
During the federal election campaign, voters have the opportunity to speak with local candidates about agriculture, farming and food. The National Farmers Union is compiling a series of short summaries of critical issues as resources for your conversations. Click here for a printable PDF version of this summary.
Seed and Trade
Recognizing the Inherent Rights of Farmers to Save Seed and Putting
the Interest of Canada’s Food and Farmers Ahead of Corporate Interests:
Election Messages and Questions for Candidates from the National
Farmers Union Seed and Trade Committee
Canada should enact a Seed Act for Farmers based on the NFU’s Fundamental Principles of a Farmers Seed Act,
which recognizes the inherent rights of farmers — derived from
thousands of years of custom and tradition—to save, reuse, select,
exchange, and sell seeds. Seeds must be recognized as a creation of
nature, not intellectual property created, owned and controlled by
multinational seed corporations. Current and proposed restrictions on
farmers’ traditional practices criminalize these ancient practices and
harm farmers, citizens, and society in general. A Farmers’ Seed Act
would only allow plant breeders to claim royalties at the time of seed
sale, it would ensure new varieties eventually enter the public domain,
it would provide for a variety registration system that protects farmers
and our food system, and it would prohibit the use of patents on seed.
Canada should restore full funding to public sector plant breeding.
For over a century, Canada’s efficient and effective public sector plant
breeding system has produced numerous crop varieties to the benefit of
Canadians, including canola and our most important cereal varieties.
Most wheat varieties currently grown in western Canada were developed by
public breeding programs and most of the wheat seed planted in western
Canada is farm-saved. The federal government has closed Agriculture Canada research centres and cut public breeding programs
and stopped public funding to the variety level in important cereal
crops. As a result, seed companies will now decide which new varieties
will be commercialized and they will reap additional profits from
royalty payments, enabled with the passing of Bill C-18.
Canada should not ratify the Canada-European Union Comprehensive
Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) or participate in the Trans Pacific
Partnership negotiations because these agreements
are not about trade. Instead they are anti-democratic agreements
designed to promote the economic interests of global corporations at the
expense of Canadian people, Canada’s environment and small businesses.
