Farmers have been selecting, harvesting, cleaning, storing, replanting and sharing seeds with each other for many millennia. Through Bill C-18, the Canadian government would turn this customary practice into a "privilege" - a hollow privilege that can be taken away at any time.
In their recent article, Keith Downey and Bryan Harvey suggest the farmers' privilege in Bill C-18 would allow farmers to save, store, clean, treat and plant seed of a protected variety on their own land. The "farmers' privilege" as laid out in section 5.3 (2) of Bill C-18 says that "the rights referred to in paragraphs 5(1)(a) and (b) do not apply to harvested material of a plant variety that is grown by a farmer on the farmer's holdings..." The rights referred to in paragraphs 5(1) (a) are "to produce and reproduce propagating material" and in 5(1) (b) "to condition propagating material." The right "to stock propagating material" is laid out in 5(1) (g) and is not included within the "farmers' privilege" provision. Section 5(1) (g) in fact gives the plant breeder exclusive control of stocking.
Since the farmers' privilege provision does not include stocking, will farmers be accused of infringing on the rights of plant breeders if they clean and store two or three years' supply of seed to protect against crop failure, disease or frost or if they store unsold grain in the farmyard which could potentially be used to grow more grain?
Aside from not providing farmers with the privilege to stock, store or bin seed on their own farm, in Section 50 of Bill C-18 the Governor in Council (ie. cabinet) is given the power to limit the farmers' privilege provision through regulations. These regulations can allow the exclusion of classes of farmers, plant varieties, crop kinds and uses of harvested material, restrict or put conditions on farmers' use of harvested material and stipulate what is to be considered "conditioning" of seed. This is hardly what one would call enshrining a farmer's right to use their own seed!
By excluding the option to stock seed and by allowing the exclusion of classes of farmers and plant varieties through regulation, farmers are left with a hollow shell called a farmers' privilege. This hollow shell goes well with a public plant breeding infrastructure that is being hollowed out piece by piece, day by day. Farmers' privilege is included in Bill C-18 to make it appear that the government is acting in the interest of farmers. Once again, Bill C-18 will hand power and control of our seeds, our farms and our food to a handful of multinational seed companies who will simply offer Canadian farmers the same varieties they have developed for larger markets with a different climate, different soil and different pests. Instead of accepting the governments' hollow promotion, take the time to read Bill C-18 and look at the analysis done by the National Farmers Union and other organizations.
- Terry Boehm is a grain farmer in Saskatchewan and former president of the National Farmers Union.. Ann Slater is vice-president (policy) of the NFU and a farmer in southern Ontario.
