Save Our Seeds

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Save Our Seeds

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Save Our Seeds ist eine europaweite Initiative zur Bewahrung einer gentechnikfreien Landwirtschaft und Natur.

At present over 200.000 individuals and 300 organisations with a combined membership of more than 25 million European citizens support the Save Our Seeds petition, and their number is growing every day. The initiative is co-ordinated by the Foundation on Future Farming in Berlin, Germany, a charity which primarily supports the development and breeding of organic seed. The initiative focuses on establishing strict seed purity within the European Union. This website keeps supporters of Save Our Seeds informed about further developments and provides a common tool for information exchange. Save Our Seeds does not represent the views of supporting organisations beyond the common goals stated in the Save Our Seeds petition. The Foundation on Future Farming is responsible for the content of this site and its accuracy. It aims to provide all relevant information relating to the issue. Any contributions as well as moral, political and financial support are very much appreciated.

19/10/2026

Webinar Recording & Recap

Once released, genetically engineered microbes can't be called back. So why does the EU want to make their release easier?

At our webinar with MEPs Marta Temido and Martin Häusling, four scientists explained what's at stake: bacteria, fungi and viruses that multiply within hours, spread across borders and swap genes with other species.

Swipe through for the key takeaways 👉 The full recording is on Youtube.

Webinar -https://www.saveourseeds.org/news/webinar-genetically-engineered-micro-organisms-opportunities-and-risks/

14/10/2026

There's already a genetically modified bacterium for sale that's designed to live in your mouth for the rest of your life 🦷🧬

It's called Lumina - engineered to out-compete your natural mouth bacteria and produce a carcinogen instead of the acid that causes cavities. It reached the market by being sold as a "cosmetic," first launched in a private city with almost no regulatory oversight. And because of how this bacterial species spreads between people, it's highly likely to end up in mouths that never asked for it.

It took one company over 20 years to design. Here's the part that should give you pause: AI is now making that kind of work dramatically faster.

Check out our Issue Brief: https://www.saveourseeds.org/briefings/issue-brief-lumina-gm-probiotic/

Swipe through to see how we got here - then let us know in the comments if you think AI should design Life?

07/10/2026

Trees on farms aren't a new idea. Communities across Africa have grown them alongside crops for generations, and Europe has its own version too - the centuries-old dehesas and montados of Spain and Portugal.

What's now called "agroforestry" is basically a rediscovery of that older knowledge. And it delivers: healthier soil, more biodiversity, carbon storage, better resilience to drought and heavy rain, and a second income stream - all while still growing food. The IPCC counts it as both a climate adaptation and a mitigation strategy.

It's already happening: around 15 million hectares of EU farmland include trees today.

So why not more? Trees take years to pay off, funding schemes are built for short cycles, and the rules for mixing farming and forestry are often unclear. Farmers also need to see it working nearby before they try it themselves.

The knowledge is there. The practice works. What's missing is secure land tenure, patient funding, and rules built for mixed systems.
There are solutions, and we're going to keep showing you what they are.

01/10/2026

Genetically engineered microorganisms have been proposed for many applications in the environment – as fertilisers and biocontrol agents in agriculture, in mining and cosmetics and for cleaning up pollutants.

The European Parliament is currently discussing how the EU should regulate these applications.

Microorganisms behave very differently from plants. Once outside the lab, they can multiply rapidly, spread over long distances, and exchange genes with other species. If they become established in open ecosystems, including in our own bodies, they may persist there indefinitely, whether or not that was the intention.

So how can we predict what they will do once released? And how can we ensure that releases remain safe and under control?

On 7 October, MEPs Marta Temido (S&D) and Martin Häusling (Greens/EFA) will put these questions to four scientists working in microbiology and ecology:

→ Prof Gabriele Berg, TU Graz
→ Dr Stephanie Jurburg, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ)
→ Prof Katja Tielbörger, University of Tübingen
→ Dr Christoph Then, Testbiotech

Our colleague Franziska Achterberg will moderate.

Wednesday, 7 October
16:30 to 18:00 CEST
Zoom, with German/English interpretation

Register via the link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KsNO9UyTRbety74jyJYy5A

01/10/2026

Did you know microbes don't need a passport to travel? 🧫

In 1934, Dutch microbiologist Lourens Baas Becking formulated one of microbiology's most famous ideas:

"Everything is everywhere, but the environment selects."

Microbes are so small and so easily carried by wind, water and animals that they can, in principle, turn up almost anywhere - it's the local conditions that decide who actually thrives.

Nearly a century of research later, the picture is more nuanced (a spectrum, not a rule) - but there's a twist that makes this directly relevant to genetic engineering: the DNA rings bacteria trade between each other, called plasmids, follow this "everywhere" pattern even more closely than the bacteria themselves.

That's exactly why self-replicating, genetically engineered organisms and their genetic material are so hard to contain once released - and why one country's decision can shape outcomes far beyond its borders.

Do not release into the environment what you cannot recall. Swipe through 👉

23/09/2026

Bacteria, yeasts, algae, viruses. Genetically modified and released into open ecosystems. EU plans would lower the safety requirements for exactly that.

The European Commission's proposal would drop the 10-year limit on approvals, reduce the information companies have to submit and relax detection rules where a method is "not feasible". On top of that comes a new "low-risk" category with a fast-track approval. In some cases, monitoring after release could be dropped entirely.

So far, not a single GM microorganism has been authorised for the market under EU GMO law. Ecological scientists from across Europe warn that GMMs "will evolve and spread fast and interact with myriads of other organisms."

Together with 35 other organisations from 12 countries, we've written to MEPs: keep every approval time-limited, require reliable detection and monitoring in every case, and don't authorise GMMs whose spread can't be controlled.

The Parliament's committees are expected to vote on 4 November, the plenary follows on 11-12 November. Tell your MEP where you stand.

22/09/2026

8 companies and 4 associations take the EU to Court!

You have no idea what's in your food. Soon, that might be by law, not by accident.

The EU just made it possible for a whole new category of genetically modified plants to reach fields and supermarket shelves without safety checks, without any way to trace them, and without a label on the food they end up in. Only the seed bag gets marked. Not your bread, not your pasta, not what's on your plate.

And once a gene-edited plant is growing in a field, there's no calling it back. Pollen doesn't stop at property lines. Farmers who've built their whole business on staying GMO-free, on purpose, for people who choose that on purpose, could lose everything overnight through contamination that isn't even their fault.

"Contamination goes one way," says Eva Heusinger of Rapunzel Naturkost. One positive test, and a company can face a recall costing over 100,000 euros, plus the trust it took decades to build.

That's why, on 21 September 2026, 8 companies and 4 associations, took the EU to court over this law.

Full story on our website: https://www.saveourseeds.org/news/broad-coalition-files-lawsuit-against-gmo-deregulation/

09/09/2026

A handful of crop varieties now feed most of the world. That's not efficiency - it's fragility.

When farming industrialized, seed selection shifted toward visual uniformity and shelf life. Flavor, nutrition, and genetic diversity were the quiet casualties. The consequence isn't abstract: in 1970, a single fungus wiped out 15% of the US corn crop in months, because nearly all seed corn at the time shared the exact same genetic weak spot.

Today, a wheat disease called Ug99 is exploiting that same kind of weak spot in wheat varieties worldwide. Diversity is also under pressure from a less visible direction: patents on seeds and genetically engineered traits, which restrict farmers' ability to freely save and exchange seed - the practice that built crop diversity in the first place.

The solutions aren't missing. Seed banks, farmer breeding networks, and organic seed initiatives are already rebuilding resilience into our food system. What's missing is policy that protects this work instead of undercutting it.

At Save Our Seeds, this is exactly the fight we're in: keeping seeds - and the diversity they carry - in the hands of farmers and communities, where they belong.

02/09/2026

Part 2: microbes live everywhere - boiling hot springs, Antarctic ice, the deep sea, the stratosphere, and inside every living thing on Earth, including you 🌍

They form biofilms, trade genes with each other, and quietly run the systems that keep soil fertile, oceans balanced, and bodies healthy. However, microbial diversity is declining worldwide - with real consequences for ecosystems and our health.

These are the organisms - of which we understand less than 1%. Now the EU is planning to relax its rules governing the environmental release of genetically modified microorganisms – potentially exposing people and ecosystems to significant risks.

Nature is not a laboratory.

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