Is the agricultural industry producing the right seeds for sustainable agriculture? Can common property rights to varieties change plant cultivation socially and ecologically? The "Right Seeds" research group is focussing on these questions.
The junior research group led by Prof Dr Stefanie Sievers-Glotzbach at the University of Oldenburg's Institute of Business Administration and Business Education is investigating whether and how seeds and varieties can be thought of as common goods. In collaboration with the University of Göttingen, Department of Agroecology, the Institute for Ecological Economy Research Berlin and other partners from the field, the scientists are investigating how common property-based variety breeding and seed production can change crop production socially and ecologically. The project is being funded over a period of five years by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the priority area of socio-ecological research.
Historically, common goods have been a tried and tested practice in agriculture. "Until the beginning of the 20th century, seeds were a resource that farmers preserved, exchanged and developed in the fields as a common good," explains Sievers-Glotzbach. However, with the intensification of the agricultural sector, plant breeding has developed into a commercial system that relies on controversial biotechnological methods, non-replicable hybrid seed and patenting. Ownership of varieties is in the hands of private companies that concentrate plant breeding and seed production on high-performance varieties for industrial agriculture, thereby expanding their monopoly position. As a result, the diversity of cultivated crops is declining worldwide. The common property approach is an alternative to conventional breeding, especially for organic farming: It promotes crop diversity and offers the potential of independent and adapted seed production for organic farming.
In Germany, seed initiatives have emerged in the context of organic plant cultivation that take up the principles of the commons. The scientists at "Right Seeds" are focussing on initiatives, networks and companies that primarily offer reproducible varieties, waive private property rights (plant variety protection and patents) and disclose the breeding process.
As part of the research project, the group is also supporting a South-North exchange between a common property-orientated cooperative in the Philippines and German initiatives and companies. "Commons-based approaches such as seed exchange systems, community seed banks and participatory plant breeding are being practised successfully in the countries of the South in particular," says Sievers-Glotzbach. The scientists are focussing on a transdisciplinary research approach and linking ecology, political science, economics and ethics by working on joint case studies and developing a shared conceptual framework. Specifically, the researchers at the University of Oldenburg will explore the normative-ethical arguments in favour of commons-based rights to seeds and varieties and empirically investigate the values associated with commons-based seed systems. They will also investigate how common property-based seed initiatives are embedded in the interplay of local, national and global institutions and how their potential can be strengthened to initiate change towards a more socially and ecologically just agriculture at these levels.