COLONISATION NEVER ENDED

Seed patenting laws are a global threat

For over 10,000 years, seeds have been the bedrock of human civilisation. From the moment our ancestors traded their nomadic hunter-gatherer ways for a life rooted in place, communities have freely collected, cultivated, saved, exchanged, and sown seeds as acts of sustenance and connection.

Far from being mere tools of production, seeds are vessels of history, culture, and innovation, carrying the wisdom of countless generations who freely exchanged knowledge, preserved biodiversity, and rooted their communities in reciprocity. These remarkable travellers have crossed continents, bringing life to distant lands and adapting to diverse environments—flourishing in deserts and flood-prone valleys, lowlands and highlands, even in seawater.

Each seed tells a unique story, holding within it the infinite potential to sustain, transform, and nourish the world. From wedding rituals, to acts of survival during war and famine, to being braided in women’s hair during slavery, seeds carry the cultural memory of communities, binding generations together through care and hope for new life.

Ultimately, the evolution of seeds has enabled our own.

For millennia, communities have carefully nurtured, selected, and saved seeds from the most climate-resilient, high-yielding, nutritious, and flavorful crops each season. But today, this sacred basis of our sustenance and autonomy is under unprecedented threat, as corporations and governments move to privatise what has always belonged to the commons.

Through UPOV (International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants), corporations are imposing intellectual property rights over “protected” plant varieties (which are often produced or modified by corporations). In many corners of the world, if communities are suspected of engaging in their traditional practice of saving and exchanging these protected seeds, they can be fined, imprisoned, and have their harvest seized.

UPOV is an international legal framework that gives corporations monopoly rights over seeds—while restricting the rights of farmers to save, reuse, exchange, or sell them.

Established in 1961 and most aggressively expanded in 1991, UPOV created the blueprint for treating seeds not as a common heritage, but as private property. Under the 1991 Act (UPOV ‘91), companies that develop or modify a plant variety can claim Plant Variety Protection (PVP)—granting them exclusive rights over the seed for 20–25 years.

Since 1961, UPOV’s founding countries have used trade agreements, neoliberal reforms, and corporate pressure to force Majority World countries into its framework for seed privatisation. Today, the treaty is made up of 80 member countries across five continents.

What does its expansion mean for farmers and communities across the globe?

• UPOV criminalises farmers.
  In countries where UPOV ‘91 is enforced, farmers can be fined, prosecuted, or imprisoned simply for practising what they’ve done for generations. In Ghana, the 2020 Plant Variety Protection Act enforces a minimum 10-year prison sentence for farmers found sharing protected seed.

• UPOV legalises biopiracy
  Corporations can patent seeds based on traditional varieties bred by Indigenous and peasant communities—without acknowledgement or benefit-sharing. With minor modifications, ancestral seeds become corporate assets.

• UPOV is being imposed on countries through pressure and coercion.
  UPOV membership is often a mandatory condition in free trade agreements or development aid packages. Countries like Kenya, Peru, and Malaysia have been pushed to adopt UPOV ‘91 against public resistance.

• UPOV undermines biodiversity and climate resilience.
  UPOV promotes genetically uniform seeds designed for large-scale industrial farming—at the expense of diverse, locally adapted varieties nurtured by peasants over many generations. This uniformity erodes seed biodiversity and weakens our capacity to withstand climate crisis, pests, and soil degradation.

• UPOV benefits a few.
  Today, just four corporations—Bayer-Monsanto, Syngenta (ChemChina), Corteva, and BASF—control almost 60% of the global seed market.

  UPOV strengthens their grip, turning every planting season into a profit stream. These companies market UPOV as “innovation protection.” But what it really protects is their control over the first link in the food chain.

• UPOV reduces seeds to a commodity.
  UPOV shifts seed laws from systems of collective stewardship to individual ownership. It severs cultural, ecological, and intergenerational relationships with seed—and replaces them with contracts and courts.

Every year on December 2nd, grassroots groups and movements around the world join to spread awareness about the threats of seed patenting laws and amplify the victories of the communities at the forefront of the resistance. Today, to start the Global Action Week Against UPOV, we proudly announce the launch of the STOP UPOV site, where you can learn more about seed rights and how you can support seed sovereignty.

This launch has been made possible through the contributions of many allies, including UChicago, whose work in building the maps has helped bring seed laws into clearer view, Alec and Harry, who helped develop and bring to life the Stop UPOV site and visual identity, and GRAIN, who has been steadfastly steering this campaign from the very beginning. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has helped create the tools that strengthen this movement.

Whether you grow food, sell it, cook it, write about it, or fight for it, you have a role to play in the fight for seed sovereignty.

Join us in building a global front with those defending seed freedom — in fields, in courts, and in the streets. Visit STOPUPOV.ORG to:

• Stay connected by following the StopUPOV Facebook Group

• Support frontline seed defenders and grassroots campaigns.

• Explore our guide to UPOV and seed rights, and use the toolkit to help you amplify this struggle across your socials.

If you’re already engaged in the fight for food and seed sovereignty, join the Stop UPOV Alliance, become a movement partner and help us organize. Send an email to stopupov@ourlists.org with ‘subscribe’ as the subject listing your:

• Name

• Organisation / Movement

Together, we can keep seeds in the hands of the people who feed the world.

1. This article by Evelyne Musambi for AP News. The historic victory of grassroots groups and organisations fighting against the criminalisation of sharing and selling indigenous seeds is one of the latest milestones in the global fight for seed sovereignty.

2. The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA)s guide for farmers and communities on UPOV 91, a learning resource for those seeking a deeper understanding of seed rights and the implications of seed privatisation.

3. The Great Seed Robbery booklet by Alianza Biodiversidad and GRAIN, another fantastic tool that breaks down UPOV’s history and what’s at stake.

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Every resource produced by A Growing Culture, whether a newsletter, article, post, or design, results from countless hours of research, reflection, and the synthesis of profound conversations held both within our team and with our partners and comrades. Behind the scenes, a wealth of effort goes into making these conversations happen, from overseeing our day-to-day operations, securing our funding, to forging deep relationships with communities around the world who are leading food systems transformation. These relationships fuel our thoughts, inform our words, and inspire our actions.

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