A political ontology of seeds

Abstract

This article follows the trajectory of a French farmers' movement that contests the seed production and regulation system set in place during agricultural modernization. It focuses on the creativity of the movement, which ranges from semantic innovations (such as "peasant seeds") to the reinvention of onfarm breeding practices based on new scientific paradigms, and includes new alliances with the social movements defending the commons. The trajectory of the movement is shaped by its encounters-with scientists, other international seed contestations, and other social movements-and by the productive frictions they create. This in-depth reframing of the activities connected to seeds contributes to building a counternarrative about farmers and seeds that reopens spaces for contestation. In this counternarrative, "peasant seeds" play a central and subversive role in the sense that they question the ontological assumptions of present seed laws.

Specificities of French community gardens as environmental stewardships

“…Second, gardeners use traditional seed varieties in contrast to the official recommendation to use those from official catalogs. The official seeds are sterile (they are mostly F1 hybrids) and prevent any local adaptation of the crops to human practices and local environmental conditions (Demeulenaere 2014). However, the choice not to use official seeds is presented by the gardeners as a protest against the normative agricultural system and a willingness to participate in an alternative to the seed industry.…”

Semences et transition agroécologique : initiatives paysannes et sélection participative comme innovations de rupture

“…Ce projet de sélection participative ne conduit pas à la sélection de nouvelles variétés génétiquement homogènes, mais innove sur la nature même des variétés (on pourrait dire, leur « ontologie », voir Demeulenaere, 2014), ainsi que sur les formes d'organisation pour les obtenir ou les maintenir. On nous rétorque parfois qu'il ne s'agit là que d'innovations « de niche ».…”

Seeds as biosocial commons : an analysis of various practices in India

“…These networks are manmade and geographically unlimited with fluid membership. In the case of the informational content within seeds are intangible, but, equally seeds exhibit tangible characteristics (Aistara, 2011;Demeulenaere, 2014;Kloppenburg, 2014;Nazarea et al, 2013;Raustiala and Victor, 2004). Considering the complex mix of both the characteristics present in seeds I consider them belonging to a category of new commons and analyse them as biosocial commons.…”

“…Seeds have been studied as commons (Aistara, 2011;Demeulenaere, 2014;Kloppenburg, 2010Kloppenburg, , 2014, but the process through which they become and develop as commons has been missing in the literature. This study has contributed to fill that gap.…”

“…51 In addition to this, as Demeulenaere (2014) argued, high yield varieties (HYVs) and genetically modified (GM) varieties turned farmers from active producers of seeds into buyers making reproduction of the farm subject to corporate control. The capacities of seeds to change and impose specific social relations for the benefit of seed companies have been extensively discussed in relation to spectacular examples as HYVs (Kloppenburg and Kleinman, 1987;Shiva, 1991;Swaminathan, 1996), and GM crops (Herring, 2005;Raeburn, 1995;Shiv et al, 2000).…”