LUGA Hosts Documentary Screening & Round Table on Seed Diversity

On the evening of Friday 26 April 2024, Luxembourg Urban Garden (LUGA) organised a viewing of the documentary films Seeds of Europe and Wëllplanzesom Lëtzebuerg, followed by a round table at the Cité Bibliothèque in Luxembourg-Ville.

Seeds of Europe, a short multilingual documentary explores the work of European seed producers and seed savers through beautifully shot footage from Ireland, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic. The film emphasises that diversity in seeds is required not just for biodiversity’s sake but also because without it, plants and vegetal produce may become fragile and less resilient. Currently, around 60% of the world’s seeds are owned, patented and sold by large enterprises, which greatly limits small farmers’ and seed producers’ chances to share their stocks of carefully-mixed and varied seeds.

Certain heterogenous seed mixes (so important for biodiversity and greater plant resilience, as well as produce diversity) are borderline “illegal” or strictly limited. Producers can only legally sell or exchange certain types of seeds and certain limited amounts. They explained that diversity is not achievable in large industries due to the requirements for produce to fit in certain types of packaging or match specific criteria of shape, size, weight or similar. Large corporations still have power over the market although slowly but surely, EU seed legislation is being reformed, providing a chance to safeguard seed diversity.

After the screening of this film, another short film presented local efforts by the nature conservation syndicate SICONA aiming to provide carefully curated Luxembourgish seed mixes to help ensure biodiversity and a healthy environment for the Grand Duchy’s flora and fauna.

A Q&A session followed, sparking lively discussions on the topic of local agriculture, sustainable living and organic produce with Frank Adams, founding member of the Luxembourgish association SEED, Daniela Noesen, Director of the Association for Organic Farming Luxembourg Asbl (Vereenegung fir Biolandwirtschaft Lëtzebuerg Asbl), Thierry Helminger, Luxembourg botanist and curator at Luxembourg's National Museum of Natural History (Musée national d'histoire naturelle Luxembourg - MNHN), Tilly Metz, Member of the European Parliament for the Greens (déi gréng) and Vanessa Duprez, responsible for species and biotope protection plans and seed production of wild plants at the nature Conservation Syndicate SICONA.