Devlin Kuyek, “Reaping What's Sown: How the Privatization of the Seed System Will Shape the Future of Canadian Agriculture”

MA Thesis, Université du Québec À Montréal, Feb. 2005

Changes to seed systems carry major implications for agriculture practices and the food system, as well as the environment. While the Canadian seed system is in the midst of a profound transformation, these
changes have not been the subject of much study and analysis. In this study, a history of the seed system is described in which change to the system is viewed within the larger processes of the industrialisation of agriculture and the restructuring of the global agri-food order. The history of the Canadian seed system is divided into three successive seed regimes: an initial seed regime where decisions over seeds were
generally made at the local level-- on the farm and by farmers; a second seed regime where decisionmaking was centralised under public plant breeding programmes and where seeds were harnessed to state agricultural development policies; and a third seed regime where the state facilitates the consolidation of decision-making over seeds in the hands of a few transnational corporations that seek proprietary control of seeds as a way to build new markets and secure their positions in a restructured global agri-food system. The transition to this Third Seed Regime can only be fully realized through the "commodification" of the seed: the use of biological means, such as genetic engineering, and social means, such as patents, to prevent seed saving practices and guarantee monopoly rights over seeds.

The thesis describes how these current transformations to the seed system, which are being implemented
with little public debate or democratic process, have the potential to impose a single agriculture and food
system upon Canadian society, a system essentially designed to meet the needs of a small number of
transnational agribusiness and food corporations. In this manner, changes to the seed system threaten
efforts to develop sustainable agriculture systems in Canada that challenge the prevailing model of
industrial agriculture.