Cultivating practices: saving seed as green citizenship?

Abstract

In this article it is asserted that saving seed is a political practice. This understanding stands in contrast to dominant constructions of seed saving as anachronistic and/or private and therefore not of political concern. While seed savers engage in the more accepted ways of being political in our society such as deputations and letter writing campaigns; they also pursue more direct, local, embodied engagements--by actually saving seeds and sharing them with others. Through their practices, seed savers push the boundaries of what is understood as political action and help create alternative views and realities of socio-natural processes, including those involving food systems. As part of this effort to better understand the political character of seed saving practices, theoretical (re)formulations of green citizenship are examined for their applicability to the practices of seed savers. More specifically, the stewardship and eco-deliberative versions of green citizenship serve as focal theorisations. The theoretical examination in this paper is grounded through an analysis of the experiences and perceptions of seed savers, as expressed through their own reflections about saving seed. This examination is particularly timely as recently proposed changes to Canadian legislation regarding seeds, combined with intensified seed industry lobbying, have raised the profile of seed issues in Canada and provoked questions about who should control seed production, distribution, and use. In large part these questions relate to whether growers should be allowed to save seed from year to year and exchange it with others (what are often referred to as 'farmers' rights').

On fait valoir dans cet article que la conservation des semences est une pratique a caractere politique. Cette comprehension affiche un contraste marque avec les interpretations predominantes voulant que la conservation des semences soit anachronique et du domaine prive, n'etant par consequent par du ressort politique. Bien que les personnes pratiquant la conservation des semences font de l'action politique d'une maniere davantage admise dans notre societe, comme les delegations et les campagnes de lettres, ils militent egalement pour leur cause d'une maniere plus locale, plus directe et plus concrete en conservant les semences et en les partageant avec d'autres. Par ces pratiques, les conservateurs de semences repoussent les frontieres de ce que l'on considere action politique et contribuent a nourrir des points de vue et des realites differents relativement aux processus sociaux et naturels, y compris ceux qui touchent aux systemes lies a l'alimentation. Dans le cadre de cet effort pour mieux comprendre le caractere politique des pratiques de conservation des semences, on analyse les formulations theoriques sur la citoyennete ecologique pour determiner si elles sont applicables aux pratiques des conservateurs de semences. Plus particulierement, les versions d'intendance et d' <> de la citoyennete ecologique servent de pivot a l'elaboration des theories. L'examen theorique presente dans cet article se fonde sur l'analyse des experiences et des perceptions des conservateurs de semences, exprimees par leurs propres reflexions sur la conservation des semences. Cet examen est particulierement opportun, puisque les modifications aux lois canadiennes proposees recemment en matiere de semences, conjuguees aux efforts redoubles de lobbying du secteur de production des semences, ont permis de mieux faire connaitre ces enjeux au Canada et ont souleve des questions quant au controle, a la production, la distribution et l'utilisation des semences. Ces questions concernent en grande partie le fait de savoir si on doit permettre ou non aux exploitants agricoles de conserver des semences d'une annee a l'autre et de les echanger avec d'autres producteurs (ce que l'on appelle souvent les <>).

Keywords:

Seed saving, farmers' rights, green citizenship, political practice, Canada

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In the simple act of planting I was engaged in one of the most

universal--and certainly one of the most important--of all human

activities. I share the act of planting and my hope for a harvest

with most of the world's population and with unnumbered previous

generations. People must eat. And the chain of production processes

that finally delivers food to our mouths--long for the New Yorker,

short for the Thai peasant--begins everywhere with the sowing of the

seed (Kloppenburg 1988: xi).

What is at stake is the integrity, future and control of the first

link in the food chain. How these issues are decided will determine

to whom we pray for our daily bread (Fowler and Mooney 1990: xiii).

Both of the above quotes emphasise the importance of seed and its immersion within socio-political processes. Kloppenburg (1988) draws our attention to the universality and necessity of food, while hinting at a growing reliance on the food industry, and Fowler and Mooney (1990) raise the question of control and power in relation to seeds and food. These themes underpin current debates in Canada regarding seed production, distribution, and use. Should saving seed (1) be illegal? Is it a right? Should the practice be protected?

These questions relating to saving seed, among others, are being raised worldwide as reorganisation of seed production and distribution networks through legislation, farming practices, corporate consolidation, and technological innovation threaten the common-place practice of farmers and gardeners saving seeds (often referred to as 'farmers' rights'). Where once saving seed was 'just the way it's done', it is increasingly constructed by legislators, distributors and developers as an exception, even an anachronism, to the endorsed 'norms' of modern, industrial agriculture and intellectual property rights. This change in the perception of saving seed is part of a broader process of the governance of seed, its uses and its users, and more broadly agro-ecological systems.

Canada is no exception to these processes of restructuring. In the last few years changing how seed is used and regulated has been pursued in several ways including proposed changes to organic legislation, to the Seeds Act, to intellectual property rights legislation, approval and promotion of genetically engineered varieties, etc. (2) For example, in November of 2004 the Canadian Food Inspection Agency released for public comment their proposed changes to the Plant Breeders' Rights Act. (3) These changes, along with other recommendations within a recent industry-led report called the Seed Sector Review, would make growers' practices of saving seed at least more difficult, and at most, illegal. Public feedback on these government and industry initiatives to restructure the seed system has been inhibited by the facts that consultation opportunities were not widely publicised, even in farming communities, and that the mainstream media have not picked up the story.

Why does saving seed matter at all? Does saving seed somehow contribute to society as a whole? Is it a political act? The strong responses of farming communities and their supporters to the proposed legislative changes and to industry-led initiatives--despite the lack of publicity and information--through petitions, letter-writing, and so forth, indicate that these practices are not irrelevant. Rather, seed saving is a set of practices valued by growers and consumers interested in supporting more sustainable socio-natural systems. My interest here lies in the importance of the practices of seed saving and exchange for the people who actually do it, and in how these understandings relate to more abstract considerations of everyday politics and green citizenship. The changing techno-political context has influenced seed savers to increasingly understand their everyday practices of saving seed as a kind of political engagement, even resistance. Therefore, rather than understanding the practice of saving seed as private or as outdated, saving seed should be understood as political practice, perhaps even as citizenship, which questions and alters socio-natural relationships.

On Citizenship and Seed Saving

Contemporary political and environmental issues are not solely confined by national boundaries; rather, their complexity and the complexity of necessary responses mean that these issues are simultaneously part of and beyond state control. The redefinition of national boundaries, which both increases and decreases their permeability, raises questions about how we define citizenship. According to Douglas Klusmeyer (2001: 1), citizenship brings together three primary issues: "how the boundaries of membership within a polity and between polities should be defined; how the benefits and burdens of membership should be allocated; and how the identities of members should be comprehended and accommodated". By raising questions about the first matter of polity boundaries, questions regarding the others are necessarily posed.