NPG;Congres zaden en biodiversiteit

From Talk2000.NL

Bron; Congres nov 2005 (ASeed)

Voor meer informatie; rif(at)aseed.antenna.nl
Betreft: Lets Liberate Diversity, Poitiers, France nov 2005:
programme+invitation+preinscription
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 28. Juli 2005 17:42 Uhr
Von: Bob Brac de la Perrire <brac@bede-asso.org>

[edit] European seminar on seeds

Lets liberate diversity

25 and 26 November 2005 in Poitiers
Bagnolet, 26 July 2005

Dear Sir or Madam,
On the 25 and 26 November, the National Coordination for the Defense of Farm Seeds (CNDSF) and the Peasant Seed Network (Rseau Semences Paysannes) are co-organising a European seminar on the theme of seeds and biodiversity in Poitiers, France. (voorbij Parijs, 840 km vanuit Amsterdam, red.)
In 1999, the CNDSF organised a European seminar around the theme: "Which future for farm seeds?" This seminar put into light the economic and technical factors that were aimed at restricting the right for farmers to reproduce and exchange their seeds. In 2003, a seminar in Auzeville gave birth to the Rseau Semences Paysannes around the idea that farmers have the inalienable right to cultivate their own seeds and develop biodiversity in their farms.
Ever since, the pressures against farmers have increased and intensified with the recent adoption of the European directive which recognizes the right to patent genetic resources. These new orientations will contribute to the exclusion of small farmers from their ancestral right to resow, select, sort and exchange their seeds.
This new seminar which is mainly open to agriculture organisations and European NGOs working for the defence of diverse genetic resources and agriculture practices, will be aimed at evaluating the noted evolutions and understanding the new strategies and orientations on seeds. An international pilot committee composed of representatives of European organisations (CPE, AbL, CROCEVIA, GRAIN, Red de Semillas, UK Food Group, Semi Rurali) met in July to finalise the program.

An substantial part of the seminar will be used to debate in workshops,
in order to reflect and elaborate a European level strategy with regards to:
The patenting of life forms.
The right to resow harvested seeds
The right to swap seeds.

The protection of 'peasant varieties'.
The access of small farmers to phytogenetic resources.
The protection against genetic contaminations from GMOs.

All these questions are at the heart of the debate between industrial or 'peasant-style' agricultures, between food sovereignty or the dependence towards a handful of large seed companies, between the protection of biodiversity in the fields or its limitation to a few gene banks.
This seminar will bring together around 150 people (agriculture organisations, NGOs, researchers, farmers, politicians...) coming from over 20 countries.
Considering the aims and ambitions of your organisation on the afore- mentioned themes, we invite you to return to us before the 30 September the completed form indicating the people that will be mandated to represent your organisation during the seminar.
We hope that you will be able to attend the seminar.

Yours sincerely,
For the organising committee