Seed is the foundation of our food system. Who controls seed, how new plant varieties are developed, who benefits from seed, and how decisions are made about seed all have big consequences.
Canada’s legal framework for seed is complex, with several laws, regulations, and policies. Canada’s first Seeds Act (1905) was enacted to protect farmers from fraud, prevent plant disease and weed problems, and promote high quality seed. But this public interest-based foundation is being eroded due to pressure from corporations that want to control seed for their own purposes.
Farmers will have to stand up to these pressures again this fall. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has proposed amendments to Canada’s Plant Breeders Rights regulations that make it illegal for farmers to save seed and other propagation materials for PBR-protected fruit, vegetable, ornamental, and hybrid varieties.
Plant Breeders Rights were created in the 1960s when countries started passing laws that gave plant breeders authority to control access to new varieties and charge royalties for their use for a period of time. Seed companies use this monopoly power to increase revenues from the varieties they develop. Eighty countries now have PBR laws based on models developed by a group that promotes plant breeders’ rights, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).
Shifting from seed saving to annual purchase increases farmers’ costs (and companies’ revenues) significantly.
Canada’s first PBR Act prohibited farmers from selling PBR-protected seed, but did not otherwise restrict their use of farm-saved seed in any way. But in 2015, Canada adopted a more stringent Act based on the UPOV’s 1991 model law. It increased the scope of plant breeders’ exclusive rights, lengthened their duration period from 18 to 20 years on most varieties, and made other changes to tighten PBR-holders’ control. And it was no longer silent about farmers’ seed saving practices. It includes a “Farmers’ Privilege” clause allowing farmers to reproduce, condition, and store seeds, tubers, and cuttings of UPOV ’91 varieties to grow future crops on their own lands, without the breeders’ permission or further royalty payments.
This new PBR law also authorizes the government to restrict or remove the Farmers’ Privilege by simply passing new regulations.
The CFIA’s proposed amendments to Canada’s PBR regulations mark its first use of this option to prevent seed saving. The proposal would remove the Farmers’ Privilege for fruit, vegetable, ornamental, and hybrid varieties that are under PBR protection, and extend PBR protection duration from 20 to 25 years for new varieties of potato, asparagus and non-tree woody species (e.g. berries).
Four corporations – Bayer, BASF, Corteva, and Sinochem – control nearly two-thirds of global seed sales. Their lobby group, Seeds Canada, consistently calls for eliminating the Farmers’ Privilege. Preventing seed-saving forces farmers to buy seed and pay royalties every year and increases corporate control over plant genetics by removing PBR-protected varieties from the market before they become freely available when the protected period expires.
The industry and the CFIA claim that with annual sales and royalty payments from farmers, private companies will get a better return on investment, encouraging them to do more plant breeding in Canada. However, nothing requires companies to invest returns in breeding – they can use the money for advertising, pay higher dividends to shareholders or buy up other smaller seed companies to increase their market domination.
Seeds for the public, not profit
By facilitating monopoly control of seed, strict PBR rules incentivize the privatization of our plant breeding system. This also means new varieties will be bred to serve corporate goals such as increased herbicide sales, more control over farmers, and higher seed prices.
Organizations like the National Farmers Union and SeedChange lead public support for farmers’ seed-saving rights. Ten organizations submitted a joint response to the CFIA’s pre-consultation in 2024, saying eliminating farmers’ privilege unacceptably encroaches on farmers’ age-old practice of saving and using farm-saved seed to plant future crops.
None of the new varieties would exist without generations of farmer knowledge and seed-saving.
Seed-saving ensures farmers have secure access to their most important input. Canada imports nearly all our vegetable seed – without Farmers’ Privilege, any supply chain disruptions could have severe food security implications.
Farmers’ Privilege enables climate resilience through variety adaptation to specific environments and farming practices, and allows farmers to continue using a variety even if it’s taken off the market before the PBR-protected period ends.
Eliminating Farmers’ Privilege for hybrids encourages seed companies to breed hybrid varieties of cereal, oil seed, and pulse crops in order to prevent seed saving, which is currently widespread. Shifting from seed saving to annual purchase increases farmers’ costs (and companies’ revenues) significantly.
Instead of forcing farmers to pay more for seed in hopes that companies will invest in plant breeding for Canadian agriculture, we should invest more in public plant breeding to develop varieties that can perform well in our growing conditions. Farmers support public plant breeding work through farmer-directed crop commissions, which fund plant breeding projects that address our farming priorities.
Farmers, including Indigenous farmers, are the original plant breeders, and thanks to them, we have the agricultural biodiversity and genetics that are the foundation of our modern plant breeding system. None of the new varieties would exist without generations of farmer knowledge of plants, agronomy, and seed-saving.
In August 2025, the Canada Gazette published the CFIA’s proposed amendments with a 70-day public comment period, the last step before regulations can be enacted. By early October over 6,000 Canadians had signed a Parliamentary e-petition asking the Government of Canada to abandon this regulatory proposal.
We hope Cabinet recognizes that keeping Farmers’ Privilege is in the public interest and decides not to enact the proposed regulation.
Cathy Holtslander is the Director of Research and Policy at the National Farmers Union. Read the NFU’s full in-depth analysis on the proposed amendments.
