Seeds, an endangered vital heritage, by Pierre Rahbi and Juliette Duquesne
Editions Les Presses du Châtelet - April 2017
75 % seed varieties have disappeared in a century. Yet they are the very basis of life. How, then, is it that this crucial subject has been kept out of the reach and understanding of the general public for so long?
Regulation, it is true, is particularly complex. Most importantly, whoever owns the seed controls the entire food chain. There are huge financial stakes involved in owning this global market.
This appropriation of the common good began more than fifty years ago with industrial seeds. Today, it is becoming more pronounced with GMOs and the "new GMOs", depriving peasants all over the world of the basic right to grow their own seeds.
How and why has this precious asset, which should belong to everyone, been privatized? What are the proven consequences of such logic? What risks does it pose to nature, of which human beings are themselves a part? These are the questions, vital for our future, addressed in this notebook.
