Organic seeds of the future: simple material?

Summary

The day where seeds were considered "material" in legal text was a decisive moment. At the European level, that was December 1, 1961, when the international convention for the protection of new varieties of plants (UPOV) was adopted by the diplomatic conference. This paper relates the semantic evolution in French and European regulations concerning seeds. Using the term "material" to define a seed sounds as an oxymoron and especially for the organic sector that highlights the concept of life integrity of plants. Semantic drifts and technical drifts are close. To consider seeds as simple material allows everybody to manipulate them, to modify them, to degrade them, to repair them, to edit them, to market them, and to patent them. The drift in regulatory texts is not insignificant; it reflects the thought of a society but can also have a sustainable impact on this thought. Therefore, it seems urgent to raise the question: What seeds do we want in the future? Patented seeds, edited seeds, certified seeds, farm seeds, peasant seeds, participatory seeds? It's time to decide! And time to precise the words in legal texts.