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Saving, sharing and shaping landrace seeds in commons: unravelling seed commoning norms for furthering agrobiodiversity

Author

Listed:
  • Emil Sandström

    (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU))

  • Tove Ortman

    (Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO))

  • Christine A Watson

    (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
    Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC))

  • Jan Bengtsson

    (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU))

  • Clara Gustafsson

    (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU))

  • Göran Bergkvist

    (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU))

Abstract

One of the major challenges facing agricultural and food systems today is the loss of agrobiodiversity. Considering the current impasse of preventing the worldwide loss of crop diversity, this paper highlights the possibility for a radical reorientation of current legal seed frameworks that could provide more space for alternative seed systems to evolve which centre on norms that support on-farm agrobiodiversity. Understanding the underlying norms that shape seed commons are important, since norms both delimit and contribute to what ultimately will constitute the seeds and who will ultimately have access to the seeds and thus to the extent to which agrobiodiversity is upheld and supported. This paper applies a commoning approach to explore the underpinning norms of a Swedish seed commons initiative and discusses the potential for furthering agrobiodiversity in the context of wider legal and authoritative discourses on seed enclosure. The paper shows how the seed commoning system is shaped and protected by a particular set of farming norms, which allows for sharing seeds among those who adhere to the norms but excludes those who will not. The paper further illustrates how farmers have been able to navigate fragile legal and economic pathways to collectively organize around landrace seeds, which function as an epistemic farming community, that maintain landraces from the past and shape new landraces for the present, adapted to diverse agro-ecological environments for low-input agriculture. The paper reveals how the ascribed norms to the seed commons in combination with the current seed laws set a certain limit to the extent to which agrobiodiversity is upheld and supported and discusses why prescriptions of “getting institutions right” for seed governance are difficult at best, when considering the shifting socio-nature of seeds. To further increase agrobiodiversity, the paper suggests future seed laws are redirected to the sustenance of a proliferation of protected seed commoning systems that can supply locally adapted plant material for diverse groups of farmers and farming systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Emil Sandström & Tove Ortman & Christine A Watson & Jan Bengtsson & Clara Gustafsson & Göran Bergkvist, 2024. "Saving, sharing and shaping landrace seeds in commons: unravelling seed commoning norms for furthering agrobiodiversity," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 41(4), pages 1825-1840, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:41:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s10460-024-10581-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-024-10581-4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Armelle Mazé & Aida Calabuig Domenech & Isabelle Goldringer, 2021. "Commoning the seeds: alternative models of collective action and open innovation within French peasant seed groups for recreating local knowledge commons," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(2), pages 541-559, June.
    2. Mazé, Armelle & Calabuig Domenech, Aida & Goldringer, Isabelle, 2021. "Restoring cultivated agrobiodiversity: The political ecology of knowledge networks between local peasant seed groups in France," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    3. Stefanie Sievers-Glotzbach & Anja Christinck, 2021. "Introduction to the symposium: seed as a commons—exploring innovative concepts and practices of governing seed and varieties," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(2), pages 499-507, June.
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