They are destroying the Seed Treaty

To the member states of the governing body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) meeting in Rome from 5 to 9 October 2015: - Via Vía Campesina With this message we want to tell you that they are killing the Treaty, which is now dedicated to organizing the theft of our seeds and knowledge. Under these conditions we can not continue to deliver our seeds to researchers and other prospectors who come to collect them in our fields to take them to the gene banks of the Treaty. We will refuse to collaborate with the research and genebanks that are put at the service of multinational seed companies until they prohibit all biopirate patents and that farmers have the right to conserve, use, exchange and sell seeds from their crops. Grains conserved in the genetic resource banks of the Multilateral System of the Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources (ITPGRFA) are our seeds: the inheritance of many centuries of peasant selections, harvested in our fields. However, we see how often we are denied access to the seeds of these peasant varieties because we are not researchers. Sometimes we get some grains provided we do not use them in our agricultural production: these would have to be dedicated only for research. We note then that its conservation status in the cold chambers is not good and that they require several years of new selection before giving crops in the current growing conditions. In spite of that, those who do this work of safeguarding genetic resources are prohibited from exchanging or selling them to other farmers through the seed laws of most of the member states of the Treaty. The Treaty has promised us a fair distribution of the benefits obtained by the industry that uses our seeds for its own selections. After 10 years, we have not seen any benefit, but a distribution of the advantages in the opposite direction. The peasants have given their seeds to the industry, which has paid nothing, and the little money given by some governments has not been given to peasant organizations, but has served to consolidate the programs of international research centers useful for the industry . We have delivered our seeds for free to gene banks and we have accepted that the industry uses them to select useful varieties. But when we use these varieties, the laws of most Treaty Member States force us to pay royalties or prohibit us from using the seeds from our own crops, ensuring that they are owned by the industry. We receive our seeds from our parents, we have taken care of them carefully and we have selected and conserved them to transmit them in good condition to future generations. We have given them to the Treaty with our knowledge of their characters because we have always shared the fruit of our work with pride. We thought we were protected against their appropriation through industrial property rights, such as plant variety rights and patents. But today we announce the launch of the Divseek program, with a view to shredding the genetic sequences of the resources contained in the gene banks to publish them in electronic databases. This program is not made for us, we do not cultivate genetic sequences or electronic "bits", and we do not need this information. However, the industry has already programmed search engines and computer programs to locate in these databases all the "genetic information" that can later be patented through the association of any interesting character for agriculture or the industrial transformation of crops. These patents on "functional inheritance units" are already authorized in several countries and will allow us to be prohibited from continuing to cultivate our seeds, the seeds that we have delivered free of charge to the gene banks of the Treaty. We have had a period of dialogue with the Treaty. However, despite the decisions of the Governing Body in Bali in 2011 and in Oman in 2013, the spaces for dialogue have been reduced, which prevents us from participating effectively and formally in the working groups and in the consultations of experts, respecting our organizational autonomy. Peasant organizations working in their fields to implement in particular articles 5 and 6 of the Treaty on in situ conservation and sustainable use of seeds, and to advance the struggle for the implementation of article 9 on the rights of farmers , are still considered as "observers", in the same way as a university student or a journalist. However, they are the main actors in the management of the genetic resources of the cultivated plants defended by the Treaty! On the other hand, it is widely applied to the industry that imposes its solutions little by little. Until the Treaty does not want to reform itself to apply articles 5, 6 and 9 in an integral manner, we will continue to build our own multilateral system of exchange among peasants. We call on governments to support our movement that lays the foundations for food sovereignty. Rome, September 30, 2015. 1) Peasant Organization (or gardeners) La Via Campesina African Center for Biodiversity, Afrique du Sud and Tanzania AJAC LUKAAL, the Association of Jeunes Agriculteurs de Casamance "Plantons", Sénégal ANAFAE, National Association for the Promotion of Ecological Agriculture, Honduras ANAMURI, National Association of Rural and Indigenous Women, Chili ANMI, National Assembly of Mapuches of the Left, Chili Association des Producteurs de Semences Paysannes, Sénégal BEDE (Biodiversity: Echanges and Diffusion d'Expériences), France Bio Burkina Faso, Burkina Faso. Biowatch South Africa. Seeds of Identity Campaign, Colombie. CCPA, Cadre de Concertation des Producteurs d'Arachides du Sénégal. COASP, Committee ouest africain des Semences Paysannes et l'ensemble de ses membres. Commons for EcoJustice, Malawi CONAPROCH, National Confederation of Small Producers, Chili CENESTA, Center for Sustainable Development and Environment, Iran Confédération Paysanne, France COPACO-PRP, Confédération Paysanne du Congo, République Démocratique du Congo Copagen, Coalition Ouest Africaine pour les Semences paysannes, Sénégal Crocevia, Italie ECVC, Coordination européenne Via Campesina Fahamu Africa et le mouvement des femmes "Nous sommes la solution", Afrique de l'Ouest Farmworker Association of Florida, USA. Ferme école Agroécologique Benkadibugu, Mali FOOL AVOINE, pour une biodiversité sans OGM ni brevet, France GIPA (Groupement Inter villageois des Producteurs d'Arachides des Communes de Thiomby / Gandiaye), membre CCPA, Sénégal Seeds Group, Colombie Landworkers' Alliance, Royaume-Uni MAELA, Mouvement agroécologique de l'Amérique latine et les Caraïbes MABD, Mouvement de l'Agriculture Biodynamique, France MPA, Movimento two small farmers, Brésil Ranquil, National Peasant Confederation and Original Peoples, Chili Red de Semillas Campesinas, Argentina Rede of Agrobiodiversidade do Semiárido Mineiro, Brésil Rural seed networks (RSC), Columbia Free Seed Network, Colombia Seed Network "Resembrando e Intercambiando", Espagne RESACIFROAT, Réseau d'Appui à la Citoyenneté des Femmes Rurales d'Afrique de l'Ouest et du Tchad Réseau Semences Paysannes (RSP), France Rete Semi Rurali, Italie Stop OGM Pacifique, Nouvelle Calédonie Union Paysanne, Canada. Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers Forum, Zimbabwe. 2) Support AHCC, Honduran Alliance of Climate Change, Honduras Alkhalachofa, responsible consumer group, Alcala de Henares, Espagne Australian Food Sovereignty, Australie Burkinature, Burkina Faso CEHPRODEC, Honduran Center for the Promotion of Community Development, Honduras Sustainable Chile, Chili Community Alliance for Global Justice, Seattle WA USA CONROA, National Coalition of Environmental Networks and Organizations, Honduras Doman chalosse vivante, France. Enda Pronat, Sénégal FIAN, Colombie Santiagueño Environmental Forum, Argentine IRPAD / Afrique, Institut de Recherche et de Promotion des Alternatives en Développement, siège Mali. JINUKUN: Réseau national pour une gestion durables des ressources génétiques, focal point of COPAGEN, Bénin Laura Gutiérrez Escobar, Free Seeds Network of Colombia et FIAN, Colombie MADGE, Australia Myriam del Carmen Salazar Villarreal Doctor in Agroecology, Colombie Terra Nuova ONLUS, Italie Via Orgánica, Mexique Ecoportal.net Minga Informative of Social Movements http://movimientos.org/ If you find this note interesting, do not hesitate to share it. Your contacts will be grateful. Here you can also subscribe to our weekly and FREE electronic publication To subscribe to our Weekly News Publication, place your e-mail below These articles may also interest you