Source: INEAS
April 26, 2010 is International Seed Day (ISD).
This is an International Day for Patent-Free Seeds, Organic Food and Farmers’ Rights.
- On April 26 celebrate with your community, friends and family by cooking healthy organic food.
- Bring awareness to bills and policies that restrict farmers from saving and breeding their seeds such as bill C-51 in Canada, BRAI in India, Order 81 in Iraq and bill S-510 in the USA.
- On April 26, write a letter to your newspaper! Call the media and/or organize an event and discuss with the public the importance of saving and protecting seeds.
- Plant a food crop with a young family or community member.
- Endorse this special day by e-mailing your full name or organization name and website to INEAS@aol.com & info@INEAS.org by April 20.
Why April 26?
Order 81 was signed on April 26, 2004 by Paul Bremer, the administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq to control Iraq’s agriculture. The Order was a declaration of war against farmers. Article 14 of this law states “Farmers shall be prohibited from re-using seeds of protected varieties,” Order 81 mends Iraq’s original law No. 65 on patents, created in 1970. The most significant part of Order 81 is the subject of ‘Plant Variety Protection’ (PVP), which ensures not the protection of biodiversity, but rather the protection of the commercial interests of USA and European major seed corporations. In order to qualify for PVP, seeds have to be ‘new, distinct, uniform and stable’. Therefore, the sort of seeds being encouraged to grow by corporations such as World Wide Wheat Company (WWWC), Monsanto and others will be those registered under PVP. READ MORE…
Tags: BRAI, C 51, ineas, international seed day, order 81, organic food, patent-free seeds, s 510, vandana shiva
This was a great injustice. Saving one’s seed for next year’s crop is a means of independence being destroyed with big agra’s hybrid seed monopoly being imposed at federal gunpoint! And have you looked at the horrors of S 510, which looks suspiciously like the “Kissinger Plan” to bring the people of the world to their knees with “weaponized” food. Recall how Stalin burned the crops and barns, slaughtered livestock and farmers, simply to force an end to independent agriculture? God help us to help ourselves! God put Adam and Eve in a garden, not a shopping center! Live Free or Die!