SEEDS STUDY

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The common seed variety catalogue and biodiversity
As described by the OECD, for species covered by EU Directives,
“the registration of varieties in a Common Catalogue is a precondition for marketing seed of
agricultural and vegetable crops in the EU. For a variety to be registered, it needs to be distinct,
uniform and stable. It also needs to be tested according to national protocols or protocols of the
Community Variety Rights Office or UPOV. Moreover, varieties of agricultural species need to
meet the criteria for value of cultivation and use.” 78
Theaimof such legislationwas“toensureseedquality, toprotect seedusers fromfalsespecifications
and to promote the use of high yielding varieties that would produce enough food for all European
citizens”79. This legislation originates from the same time that the Common Agricultural Policy
(CAP) was established, a time when Europe was facing the challenge of reconstruction and where
the need to increase productivity in agriculture was perceived as a fundamental step to reach
food security. At that time there was a solid conviction that a productivist paradigm80 was the only
solution for the agricultural and social challenges facing Europe. The marketing of seeds, from
lists of species covered by EU Directives, is limited to registered varieties, where the registration
criteria for these varieties are based on the so-called DUS (distinctness, uniformity and stability)
criteria. The problem with this approach is that it only caters for seeds designed for industrial-
scale production81. Indeed the authorities decided to create a legislative system which guaranteed
that consumers, i.e. farmers, would be provided with homogenised seed varieties that ensured
a high level of productivity under industrial farming conditions, called “conditions de confort” in
French82. On the other hand, those farmers and breeders who want to work with non-industrial
varieties do so with many market uncertainties, mainly due to these legislative constraints. Indeed,
the DUS criteria spelled out by the legislation have contributed to industrialising the food system
and also to a loss of biodiversity.83
78.
79. Towards more crop diversity, adapting market rules for future food security, biodiversity and food culture , IFOAM EU group, May 2013, p. 4.
80.
(extract from: Freibauer A., Mathijs E., Brunori G., Damianova Z., Faroult E., Girona i Gomis J., O´Brien L. and Treyer S., Sustainable food consumption
and production in a resource-constrained world, the European Commission’s Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR), February 2011,
)
81. The DUS criteria and in general the current rules for the catalogue registration deny farmer varieties (farm-bred or farm-saved seeds) a legal status, but otherwise
these criteria are very much in demand by the agribusiness industry and by the big retailers.
82. Kastler G, Les semences paysannes : situation actuelle, difficultés techniques, besoin d’un cadre juridique, Dossier de l’environnement de l’INRA n° 30, 2009,
83. “By the 1990s in Ireland, 90% of the total wheat area is sown to just six varieties”
(Extract from Shiva V. et al, The law of the Seed, Navdanya International, 2013, p.11,