INoticias.CL | Threat to Traditional Seeds in Chile: Latin American Agroecological Movement Accuses SAG of «Dictatorship»

MAELA Accuses SAG of «Dictatorship» Against Traditional Seeds

A Project Aiming to Extend State Control

The Latin American Agroecological Movement (MAELA-Chile) has denounced that the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG) has called for a Public Consultation regarding a project aiming to extend state control over so-called «ordinary seeds,» integrating them into the same regulatory framework governing certified seeds, as reported by Prensa Opal.

According to the publication, the organization claims that the regulation SAG seeks to extend originated from Decree Law No. 1.764 of 1977, enacted during the military dictatorship and approved by five votes: that of General Augusto Pinochet and the four Commanders-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, without citizen participation. This decree established the so-called «Seed Law,» which continues to regulate the production, use, and marketing of seeds certified by the SAG.

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The current regulation grants SAG inspectors powers that, according to MAELA, «nullify fundamental rights such as private property and the guarantee of due process«. Among these powers are: the status of notarized ministers, unrestricted access to properties without judicial authorization, the ability to call police forces to exercise public force, and the capacity to order the «seizure» of seeds without a defense procedure. “The SAG acts as if the rest of the state does not exist,” the statement asserts, referring to the phrase attributed to King Louis XIV: “I am the state.”

For MAELA-Chile, the Public Consultation initiated by the SAG is part of the problem, not a solution. The organization asserts that it is a «sneaky, camouflaged» process meant to impose rules without real discussion with those affected. “We are not available to contribute to the discussion of an activity which we do not engage in—the seed trade—regarding matters that should be crucial to the seed trade, but not for those of us who sustain ourselves on the produce from our traditional non-certified seeds,” the statement claims.

The Excuse of «Plant Health Security» and International Commitments

The argument presented is for the protection of the «plant health security of the country». However, according to the organization, this same justification was used to apply toxic and carcinogenic pesticides in the Metropolitan, O’Higgins, and Valparaíso regions during a campaign against fruit flies, affecting about 6 million people, including children in kindergartens.

MAELA, according to Prensa Opal, recalls that in December 2018, Chile voted in favor of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants, which in its Article 19 recognizes the right to conserve, use, exchange, and sell their own seeds. For the organization, the SAG project directly contradicts that commitment.

The Task: Sow Resistance

For MAELA, the crucial discussion is not about responding to the SAG’s Public Consultation, but about how to make effective the rights recognized in the UN Declaration. “It should not be our role to continue shielding and tolerating the authoritarianism that takes hold of our fields, with its non-consultative and arbitrary rules,” they affirm. “The dispute is not merely technical or bureaucratic. It is a discussion about food sovereignty, biodiversity, and the right of those who produce food to decide what to plant, how to cultivate, and what future they wish for the Chilean countryside.” In this regard, the peasant movement concludes: “We will then sow Resistance and harvest what we need: the full respect for our internationally recognized rights, even by the Chilean state.”

La entrada Threat to Traditional Seeds in Chile: Latin American Agroecological Movement Accuses SAG of «Dictatorship» se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.