I recently came to read GRAIN’s briefing about the troubles linked to organic seed certification that is being implemented in most european countries under the lobbying of major seed suppliers. This seemed to be quite an important issue, furthermore related to an activity that is originally dedicated to preserve vegetal diversity.
To briefly summarize the issue :
organic farmers have to meet some standard requirements to get certified as such – mostly about production processes, and since recently seed sourcing. It is, indeed, necessary that the seeds themselves come from an organic production. That seems logical, will you say quite rightfully.
The trouble is that such seeds do need to be proved organic, therefore certified. Most seeds aren’t.
As a consequence, few varieties can truly be cultivated under the organic certification, thus creating a gap between the ideals of organic agriculture – preserving diversity – and the poor range of material available.
Of course there can be derogations, in case a seed can’t be found in the official catalogue, but they are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain; and even though, such a legislation outlaws seed saving and exchange amongst farmers, creating a relationship of dependancy to certified suppliers.
Finally, such norms tend to export to South countries, especially since most organic products come from such places. Yet they don’t take into account local context, in which financial limitations – debts – and technical differences – a seed that is practical in Europe will be inefficient in many other places.
This problematic must lead to the development of alternative labels, that put an emphasis on social development rather than on seed documentation. Production under these licenses won’t obviously be put under the same banner than certified organic agriculture, even though it will be of higher environmental and social quality.
Yet such a development of alternative labels should not happen without taking the time of a true reflection on the value we want to give to all the labels we come to encounter. What makes me trust this, or this certification ? Alternative labels should be based on confidence, and on a true understanding of the actual values it promotes, This is what I believe.
I will, during the next stages of my research, try to challenge this too simple view on certification I believe most consumers adopt. I will lead tests dedicated to understand the latter’s opinion and base my work on the results.
I want to develop as an outcome such an alternative label, along with all the visual and physical material that will be necessary to implement it – communication, packaging, store concept and all that helps promoting the values of the label.
As a step towards this end, I want to use my research to generate a toolkit, for local communities to develop their own confidence-based label. This is, I believe, something that I will use myself.
Finally, I need to explain an aspect that interests me to consider as part of that project : I want to, throughout the label identity, transmit information about the seeds that are required to bring the ingredients on the table. I will therefore research on ways to get information about seed genealogy transmitted to the consumer. In parallel, I would like to study the genealogy of a specific plant as a case study. I recently heard that carrot became orange in the Netherlands; well I’m on the spot, so why not carrot ?
