{"id":124071,"date":"2026-03-19T10:33:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T09:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bioecoactual.com\/?p=124071"},"modified":"2026-03-19T10:33:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T09:33:35","slug":"organic-and-biodynamic-sectors-call-on-eu-ministers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bioecoactual.com\/en\/2026\/03\/19\/organic-and-biodynamic-sectors-call-on-eu-ministers\/","title":{"rendered":"Organic and biodynamic sectors call on EU Ministers to safeguard conservation and local varieties in the final PRM Regulation"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Trilogue negotiations on the Plant Reproductive Material (PRM) Regulation intensify, the European Consortium for Organic Plant Breeding (ECO-PB), Biodynamic Federation Demeter International, and\u00a0IFOAM<\/span>\u00a0Organics Europe\u00a0have written to EU Ministers of Agriculture\u00a0<\/a>calling for a final text that\u00a0does not place unnecessary restrictions on conservation and local varieties.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"IFOAM-EUROPE\"
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\u201cThe restrictive Council\u2019s position on conservation and local varieties would have serious consequences on the many organic farmers, breeders and seed companies that currently rely on them\u201d said Eric Gall, Deputy Director of\u00a0IFOAM<\/span>\u00a0Organics Europe. \u201cIn particular, restricting the production of these cultivars to their region of origin, and limiting newly bred varieties to only fruits and vegetables would\u00a0significantly impact the activities of networks, breeders and seed companies that are developing and selling them<\/strong>\u201d, he continued.<\/p>\n

The organisations listed several concrete examples to illustrate the consequences of these restrictions, and the need for an intermediate category between heterogeneous Organic Heterogeneous Material (OHM) and uniform DUS varieties. In Italy,\u00a0Rete Semi Rurali<\/a>, together with an organic farmer in Veneto, attempted to notify a wheat OHM, which was rejected by competent authorities on the grounds of insufficient heterogeneity \u2014 precisely the kind of situation an intermediate category would resolve. In Denmark,\u00a0Landsorten<\/a>\u00a0distributes landraces of arable crops which would fall under the local variety category and whose characteristics are of particular interest to organic farmers, because of their resistance to diseases and strong weed competitiveness.
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\nOn geographical restrictions, the organisations note \u201cthe value of these cultivars lies precisely in their ability to adapt to specific local and climatic conditions<\/strong>\u201d and that, for certain crops, propagation and cultivation outside the region of origin is not a choice but a necessity. Fruit trees such as apple, pear, plum and cherry, for instance, are frequently propagated in organic nurseries in other countries when local nursery capacity is insufficient.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch varieties are often developed by small-scale breeders, networks and breeding companies. Protecting this category is therefore not only an agronomic question \u2014 it is also a matter of\u00a0supporting a diverse and resilient seed market, necessary to maintain diversity, which is not dominated solely by large commercial operators<\/strong>.\u201d said Edwin Nuijten, chair of ECO-PB.<\/p>\n

Finally,\u00a0IFOAM<\/span>\u00a0Organics Europe, ECO-PB and Demeter call for an\u00a0explicit ban on genetic engineering<\/strong>\u00a0(GMOs and New Genomic Techniques (NGT)) material within the conservation and local variety framework, alongside a\u00a0clear exclusion of intellectual property rights<\/strong>\u00a0such as patents. \u201cConservation varieties<\/a>\u00a0are an important genetic pool for organic breeders. Explicitly excluding genetic engineering and patents would allow organic breeders to confidently use them,\u201d said Edwin Nuijten, chair of ECO-PB.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call on policymakers to follow the European Parliament\u2019s position, which\u00a0keeps the framework simple, without unnecessary burden<\/strong>\u00a0and ultimately truly enables organic farmers, breeders and seed companies to continue working with these cultivars.\u201d concluded Clara Behr, Head of Policies and Public Relations of the Biodynamic Federation Demeter International.<\/p>\n

With Trilogue negotiations advancing rapidly and conservation and local varieties expected to come to the table shortly, the organisations stress that the decisions taken in the coming weeks will have lasting consequences for agrobiodiversity, organic breeding, and the resilience of European farming systems in the face of climate change.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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