There is a great deal of concern in the European Union that use of various vegetable seeds shall be regarded as illegal and consequently subject to criminal penalty. Item 4 from Directive 2002/55/EC states specifically: Greater productivity will be achieved in Community vegetable cultivation if for the choice of varieties accepted for marketing the Member States apply uniform rules which are as strict as possible.
While the above applies specifically to marketing, there is concern that it will be extended or has already been extended to include cultivation for personal consumption, something that is very much more common in Europe than the U.S. where very large farms rather than private vegetable gardens are the norm.
An example of where seed regulation causes difficulties is in Bavaria. A tomato plant might do well at lower elevations but higher altitude requires a more temperature-tolerant variety and therefore seeds from Russia and other locations with similar climate are preferable. However, this is or may soon become illegal.
This type of regulation is of particular concern for the reduction in biological diversity and also because this type of logic / legislation can easily spread. The European Union is just as thoroughly controlled by corporate special interests as is the Congress in the U.S. so spreading this type of seed control is no more complex than a financial wire transfer from one bank to another.
At the root of this (yah, I see the pun ... move on) is most likely an attempt to control GMO seeds and it's not my purpose to argue the health benefits / risks in such organisms. Rather there is a much bigger problem in regulating biological diversity at all.
When any biological insult comes to a population, survival is contingent on the resistance of some percentage of that population. For example, bubonic plague did not wipe out the human race because there was a genetic resistance to it in the survivors and that has been passed along to us. However, a similar type of insult to a population of crops, assuming all of them are under tight genetic control, means all of them will disappear and there is no recovery.
There are seed banks around the world to ensure as much as possible maintenance of biological diversity but the legislation currently in motion is moving in the other direction.
While the above applies specifically to marketing, there is concern that it will be extended or has already been extended to include cultivation for personal consumption, something that is very much more common in Europe than the U.S. where very large farms rather than private vegetable gardens are the norm.
An example of where seed regulation causes difficulties is in Bavaria. A tomato plant might do well at lower elevations but higher altitude requires a more temperature-tolerant variety and therefore seeds from Russia and other locations with similar climate are preferable. However, this is or may soon become illegal.
This type of regulation is of particular concern for the reduction in biological diversity and also because this type of logic / legislation can easily spread. The European Union is just as thoroughly controlled by corporate special interests as is the Congress in the U.S. so spreading this type of seed control is no more complex than a financial wire transfer from one bank to another.
At the root of this (yah, I see the pun ... move on) is most likely an attempt to control GMO seeds and it's not my purpose to argue the health benefits / risks in such organisms. Rather there is a much bigger problem in regulating biological diversity at all.
When any biological insult comes to a population, survival is contingent on the resistance of some percentage of that population. For example, bubonic plague did not wipe out the human race because there was a genetic resistance to it in the survivors and that has been passed along to us. However, a similar type of insult to a population of crops, assuming all of them are under tight genetic control, means all of them will disappear and there is no recovery.
There are seed banks around the world to ensure as much as possible maintenance of biological diversity but the legislation currently in motion is moving in the other direction.
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