California Seed Sharing Bill Signed into Law

Seed sharing in California took a major step forward on Friday when Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the California Seed Exchange Democracy Act, an amendment to the California Seed Law. It’s the latest victory in a global movement to support and protect seed sharing and saving.

Seed Sharing Movement Wins Big with New Legislation

Since the crackdown on seed libraries by some U.S. states last year, organizers (including Shareable) around the country have been working to protect seed sharing. In both Minnesota and Nebraska, bills that specifically exempt non-commercial seed sharing from commercial seed laws were recently signed into law.

Seed sharing in US threatened by regulation

Local regulators in the US are starting to apply laws meant for big, corporate seed producers to the approximately 300 community seed libraries in the US. Unless regulators are stopped soon, these seed libraries may be quickly regulated out of existence. State regulators are copying one another and, unfortunately, this trend is gaining momentum.