The Members
of the European Parliament (MEPs) on the Agriculture and Environment
committee who are directly involved with the law are listed below.
Most of you
will have at least one of these MEPs in your home region - they are
the best person to write to. You can either click on the underlined
links to send them an e-mail. Further down this page you can see
draft wording of what you could say in your letter or e-mail. The
more correspondence they receive regarding this matter the greater
the chance that they will take notice.
Julie Girling (one of the lead MEPs for this law on
Agriculture)
At this stage,
writing to these MEPs is the key thing to do.
Here is a draft template
of a letter or e-mail that you could send to your local MEP. We are
grateful to
The Real Seed Catalogue organisation for originally writing it
and all credits go to them as authors.
To quickly copy the wording
simply press your mouse key on the "Click HERE to Copy Text" button
below. All the wording will be put in your clipboard - to save you
hassle. You can then paste the contents into your word processor
document or e-mail message. To do that right click your mouse in
your blank document and select "Paste" from the drop-down menu. You
can then edit the contents as you please.
Whilst it is convenient to
use the wording shown, it's always a good idea to include some of
your own thoughts on the matter when writing your letter or e-mail.
That is a matter for you. Don't forget to edit the text shown
between the brackets after you've pasted the wording into your
document!
[Your Name/ Address]
[Your MEP's Name/ Address]
[Date]
Dear Mr/Ms [Your MEP's Surname]
Re: New EU Plant Reproductive Material law
I am writing to you as a home gardener, to ask you to push for
further improvements to the new law which will regulate the sale of
seeds in the EU.
Although the first draft of the law in May suggested an exemption
for small 'micro enterprises', the current reports from both
committees working on the law suggest taking this out. The new
'niche market' exemptions that are proposed are very limited, and
will not solve the problems of UK home gardeners.
What is needed is not to exempt some companies from the law, but to
make sure that there is a way that the needs of home gardeners can
be met within the law. It is not appropriate for seeds sold in small
packets for individual gardeners to be regulated in the same way as
seeds for commercial agriculture, and as a gardener, I do not want
to be limited to growing varieties of vegetable developed for a
completely different type of growing.
Agriculture in the EU is a major business. Individual citizens'
gardens and allotments are a completely different sector, and don't
need the same degree of regulation. Although the law is being
described as for 'consumer protection' there are no problems with
home garden seed that will be fixed by this law.
In the previous legislation from 2009 there was a recognition that
""vegetable varieties with no intrinsic value for commercial crop
production but developed for growing under particular conditions"
such as hand cultivation and repeated harvesting were a different
category that needed to be regulated separately. This idea was
introduced to deal with the fact that amateur growers need different
seed, and should not be lost.
I would ask you to push for changes so that home garden seeds and
plants are treated separately from seeds sold to farmers in this new
law.
