Human Wrongs Watch
By Vandana Shiva* – TRANSCEND
Patenting seeds has led to a farming and food crisis – and huge profits for US biotechnology corporations.
**Image: Collection of variety of vegetable and herb seeds. Author: Rickproser | Wikimedia Commons
The seed is the first link in the food chain – and seed sovereignty is the foundation of food sovereignty. If farmers do not have their own seeds or access to open pollinated varieties that they can save, improve and exchange, they have no seed sovereignty – and consequently no food sovereignty.
The deepening agrarian and food crisis has its roots in changes in the seed supply system, and the erosion of seed diversity and seed sovereignty.
Seed sovereignty includes the farmer’s rights to save, breed and exchange seeds, to have access to diverse open source seeds which can be saved – and which are not patented, genetically modified, owned or controlled by emerging seed giants. It is based on reclaiming seeds and biodiversity as commons and public good.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 