Keeping Seeds in Peoples' Hands

Seeds and agricultural biodiversity have been at the heart of social movements' struggles for decades. Nonetheless, despite the manifold interlinkages, efforts towards the realization of the human right to adequate food and nutrition have thus far paid insufficient attention to them. The Right to Food and Nutrition Watch 2016-"Keeping Seeds in Peoples' Hands"-explores ways to close this gap and promote a stronger agenda to advance these interconnected struggles. It discusses how peasant movements, indigenous peoples, and other local communities around the world are resisting the privatization and commoditization of nature and presenting alternatives. Created by FIAN International, together with Observatori DESC, Pakistán FisherFolk Forum, People's Health Movement, Dejusticia, Habitat International Coalition, World Oganization Against Torture and others, this publication gathered the views of civil society organizations, social movements and scholars all over the world and exposes how business seeks to privatize, monopolize and control seeds by patenting and commodifying them. The imposition of intellectual property rights and patents are putting formerly resilient peasant seed systems at risk and is coming at the expense of peoples’ human rights and the maintenance of biodiversity.

Read the full report here.