What you can do
- Sign the Save Our Seeds petition, download a print version of the signature list and distribute it to friends, in your shop, farm, market, office, school or university.
- Link Save Our Seeds with the websites you have access to. A logo in different sizes is available in downloads.
- Write to the EU-Commissioners responsible for Consumer Protection, Agriculture and Environment and let them know about your concerns and opposition to labelling thresholds for GMO in seeds.
- Write to any other member of the European Parliament and let them know about your concerns and opposition to labelling thresholds for GMO in seeds.
- Send letters to your local or national newspapers raising the issue. So far this apparently "technical issue" has gained little attention in the media, partly because it sounds a bit complicated and also because seeds are not an especially fancy subject. However, seeds are the basis of all our food and that of future generations.
- Write to the ministers responsible in your country (usually the minister for agriculture, but also for consumer protection, environment and for economics) and urge them to stop the proposed GMO-Directive and change it into a Seed Purity Directive. You may also want to ask about the additional costs arising for farmers, industry and consumers and protest against any hidden subsidies for GMO introduction in food and farming. Ask them for a precise and public answer about how they will instruct their representatives in the Seed Committee to vote on this Directive.
- Call or write to regional, national and European members of Parliament and ask them to take action against the contamination of seeds. 70% of European consumers and farmers don't want to eat or grow GMOs. So their representatives should defend these interests towards their government and the EU. Such a fundamental decision should not be made by technical EU committees but by the representatives of the people.
- Call your supermarket and the producers of your favourite food brands, and ask them how they will guarantee non-GMO products in the future and at what price. They should defend their customers' and their own interest against additional costs and problems for non-GM food. If the contamination is not stopped at the source, which is seeds, it will spread to food and require costly and cumbersome testing and control.
- Talk to friends and colleagues about this issue, take it to the organisations, parties and associations you may be affiliated with and suggest taking urgent action. Bring up the issue and distribute information at work. If you are employed in any food or farm-related company, think about how seed contamination would affect your business.
- Talk to farmers about this Directive (many of them might never have heard about it) and its impact on their farming practices and business. Ask the farmers unions of your country how they protect their members against the contamination of seeds and what action is being taken by their lobby representatives in Brussels.
- If you are a farmer, but also if you garden privately, ask your seed supplier how he will cope with GMO contamination of seeds, and how he would guarantee non-GM supply in the future or whether his seeds will also be contaminated.
- Support the Save Our Seeds Initiative by making a donation to keep up this work and distribute information.
- Participate in internet discussion groups of international organisations, national governments, political parties, associations, and companies. For instance:
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
The forum organised by the FAO Inter-Departmental Working Group on Biotechnology hosts a series of focused, time-limited e-mail conferences concerning biotechnology in food and agriculture for developing countries.
Everyone that registers as a member receives an e-mail with a schedule of events and topics, and all messages from the conference. The forum is moderated, so messages have to follow the guidelines of the forum to be posted. So far 15 conferences have been completed. The most recent conference ran from 10 November to 14 December 2008. The next conference runs from 8 June to 5 July 2009.
