Page 48 - Breeding and regulatory opportunities, Renaud

Chapter 2

The Development and Implementation of Organic Seed Regulation in the

United States

Erica N.C. Renaud, Edith T. Lammerts van Bueren, Janice Jiggins

(published in Organic Agriculture, 2014: DOI: 10.1007/s13165-014-0063-5)

Abstract

This article reviews and analyses the evolution of organic seed regulation in

the US, as a model case of how challenges in a new regulatory area are being

addressed. The study draws on formal interviews of key stakeholders, participant

observation, and documents generated in a six-year period between 2007 and

2013. The article addresses three main issues: (1) how proposals for the wording

and implementation of the regulation constrain seed choices and give rise to

unintended consequences, (2) how emergent organizations and procedures

have responded to the tension between sustaining seed diferentiation to match

the characteristics of local markets, organic production and agro-ecologies, and

the narrowing of varietal choice in catalogued seed so as to expand commercial

organic seed markets and encourage organic seed breeding, (3) why consensus

on the content of formal seed policy has failed to develop despite a high level

of stake holder engagement. The study revealed that the oicial guidance

on the interpretation of the regulation has not been suiciently decisive to

prevent divergent interpretation and practices, and therefore the needs of a

rapidly growing economic sector are not being met. The article concludes by

drawing lessons for key areas of regulatory interpretation and practice, and by

identifying possible ways to make organic seed governance more efective.

Keywords

Organic seed regulation, organic agriculture, regulatory processes, stakeholder

interests, United States (US)

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