Seeds and Farmers’ Rights: how international regulations affect farmer seeds

This dossier aims to shed some light on the questions of how international regulations affect farmer seeds, on what the threats to farmers’ rights over their seeds are and what are the foundation of food sovereignty? The analysis focuses principally on the situation in the European Union, but most of the examples used are taken from the French-speaking world, most notably French-speaking Africa. The dossier is intended as a tool and is the result of discussions within the European Farmer Seeds Network. It provides a diverse array of information and aims to help the community of participants and users of farmer seeds to understand today’s most important issues, whether they are farmers, gardeners, nursery workers, artisan seed producers, people who work with farmer varieties in their livelihoods (bakers, cooks), researchers, park employees or consumer groups. The hope of the publishers is that the dossier will clarify the matters for as many people as possible, increase participation in debates on seed regulation and help people to act with regard to the issue of user rights to seed.