New EU seed law, is it as bad as media makes it sound?

[Nathan McCorkle]

Seems that no one can keep their seeds unless they are non-commercial
or have <10 employees, unless it's an approved variety. Something like
that is what I read. Is this hype because the govt is grand-fathering
all existing varieties or something (that would make some sense I
guess)?

The actual law (or is it just a proposal):
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/pressroom/docs/proposal_aphp_en.pdf

--
-Nathan

[Brian Degger]

Its not good. Could make heirloom seed exchanging illegal.

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[leaking pen]

furthermore, plant

reproductive material exchanged in kind

between two persons other than professional

operators is excluded from the scope of

the Regulation

Also, from everything I gather, it is, here are approved species that can be mass sold, with proper labeling.  Any species not on this list must be submitted for heath testing and registration before being sold.

I...  fail to see the issue.

[Jonathan Street]

Do you have a source for either of those quotes? I was unable to find them in the pdf linked to by Nathan.

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[leaking pen]

I copied and pasted the first quote out of said article, and the second was my basic summation of the law after having read the article.

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[Cathal Garvey (Android)]

If I want an heirloom variety and don't know anyone with seeds, I will want to buy them.

Under this framework, I won't be able to buy them, as the costs of testing and registering heirloom varieties will far outstrip any potential profit from their sale, so very few varieties will be registered.

I fail to see the *need* for such invasive legislation. EU should butt the fuck out of kitchen and community gardens, because they're the only apparent target of this move.

--
Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

[leaking pen]

I have to disagree. First of all, "heirloom" seeds are a marketing ploy. they really are.  There are plenty of seeds out there that will seed themselves from year to year, and are free of any lab modification, that you can buy, that aren't "heirloom".  Its as big a crock as "organic". 

Secondly, we have an issue with natural herb garden seed packets that were sold to people containing a lot of things that while they do have herbal benefit, are also invasive weeds. Thistles are currently overwhelming phoenix, for example.

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[Cathal Garvey (Android)]

Invasive species prevention is a separate issue, one already implemented in much of the EU with few objections. If Thistles cause harm to your ecosystem, by all means ban 'em.

What's at issue is the effective banning of varieties of crops otherwise accepted for cultivation in a given area. Whether or not you think 'heirloom' is a marketing crock is irrelevant to my right to grow non-noxious-weeds in my garden and sell the produce of my work to others. There is no reason to intervene here as long as I'm not making unreasonable claims or selling something unfit for purpose (ie, poisonous potatoes).

It's worrying enough that we've lost so much crop biodiversity due to mass-monoculture already, so much so that the loss of soviet-era seed banks is regarded as a tragedy, but this framework will also destroy valuable crop biodiversity; varieties from which traits can and should be sourced to improve crop vigour and resilience.

So, again: why the hell should it be illegal for me to sell seeds for some cool tomato variety I've found, bred, or inherited without an expensive round-trip through a bureaucratic system?

[leaking pen]

There is no reason to intervene here as long as I'm not making unreasonable claims or selling something unfit for purpose (ie, poisonous potatoes).

which is the point of the law. PROVE that you aren't.  You make an assertion that it will be too expensive to do so, but I don't see anything stating that in the law. It seems a simple submittal and review board.

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[Cathal Garvey (Android)]

I have yet to meet a review board without a significant price tag.

As it's relevant to the group, the EU GMO registration process follows the sane pattern: prove it's safe and there's no problem! What has it done to usage of modified crops here?