Whats so important about the right of farmers to save seed?
Farmers aren’t simply “saving” seed; they are selecting seeds and adapting their plants for local use. In essence, farmers are plant breeders who are adapting their crops to specific farming conditions and needs. Since most of the world’s poor farmers live in marginal farm environments (e.g., poor soils, and little rainfall) and don’t have money to buy commercial seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, they depend on plants that survive and produce under adverse conditions year after year. In the process, resource-poor farmers are stewards of genetic diversity. Poor farmers in the tropics and sub-tropics produce 15 to 20% of the world’s food supply (6); they also maintain diverse crop varieties that are a source of genetic diversity for the world’s plant breeders and genetic engineers. If farmers lose the right to save seed-they lose the ability to select seed and adapt crops to their unique farming conditions. If farmers eat or abandon their traditional seeds in the process of adopting Ter
