The Fifth Constituent Power Debate on an Agroecological Seed Law

Translation by Revolucion Alimentaria

Silvia Jaramillo, Alternate Council Member of the City of Pedro Maria Freites:

We are reporting on the fifth Constituent Power Debate on an agroecological seed law. These meetings take place on the 13, 14, and 15th of June 2014 in the community of Campo Mata in the state of Anzoategui. There will be a discussion open to all producers; we are receiving comrades from different parts of the country to participate. It is a blessing to have everyone here where, though the town is small there is a warm welcome.

Erika Molina, the Autana Tepuy Collective:

This constiituent power debate was started when the economy and finance committee of the national assembly proposed seed legislation; it was a proposal that was similar to one advanced in 2002, but this latest version would be very permissive of transgenic seeds and contained clauses that protect intellectual property; we see such provisions for the protection of intellectual property as a form of privitization or approporation of public goods, and in particular, the public good of seeds. In response to these elements of the proposal, popular organizations intervened and advised the National Assembly that it should not advance to the first stage of discussion of this law. Numerous popular organizations concerned with the seed policy took the inititiative to debate the seed law and held the first debate at Monte Carmelo. With each debate more and more comrades joined the discussion and we organized a structure and methodology appropriate to such debate. One objective is to establish this seed law discussion and institutionalize it as an instance of the exercise of popular power with the goal of conserving and producing seeds in accord with the logic of ecosocialism.