Fourteen farmer and seed advocacy organizations across Canada are pushing the minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food to provide a thoughtful response that properly acknowledges farmers’ concerns about proposed amendments to the Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) regulations.
PBR regulations protect the intellectual property of seed breeders who create new seed varieties. It gives seed breeders exclusive rights to produce and reproduce propagating material like seeds from new plant varieties they create for 20 years. These breeders can also charge royalties for the use of these varieties.
Currently, farmers who purchase new seed varieties enjoy a farmer’s exemption which means they can use the seeds harvested from the new variety of plants they grow. The proposed changes to PBR regulations will narrow the farmer’s exemption for fruit, vegetable, ornamental, and hybrid varieties.
The federal government held public consultations to analyze the impact of these changes beginning in August 2025. In September, an e-petition against the proposed PBR changes gathered more than 6,000 signatures.
”Since most vegetable seed is bred and sold by foreign corporations, grown abroad, and imported, this change would also make Canada more dependent on other countries for its food supply,” said Katie Fettes, Director of Policy and Research with one of the organizations fighting against the changes, Canadian Organic Growers.
Farmers and seed advocacy organizations say the encroachment on the age-old practice of using farm-saved seed will also affect Canada’s food system as it increases prices for farmers. In a release by the National Farmers Union (NFU), concerned farmers highlighted that while Canadian farms and the public suffer, the world’s largest seed companies profit. Six multinational seed companies control 64 per cent of the global commercial seed market
Minister Heath MacDonald tabled a response to the e-petition in November but the NFU, Canadian Organic growers and other allied organizations said their concerns have not been adequately addressed.
The proposed changes are intended to modernize PBR regulations, Minister MacDonald wrote in his response. He acknowledged that the current state farmer’s exemption aims to balance intellectual property rights with traditional farming practices but he said there are still issues with the policy.
“Unrestricted propagation of a protected plant variety fundamentally undermines the breeder’s intellectual property rights,” MacDonald wrote. “As such, the proposed regulatory amendments seek to clarify that hybrids, fruit, vegetable, and ornamental varieties should not be subject to the farmers’ privilege.”
He highlighted that farmers would still be able to save seeds from plant varieties that fall under the public domain.
“Farmers ultimately have a choice in the plants they wish to grow, either Plant Breeders’ Rights-protected or unprotected varieties,” he wrote.
NFU president Jenn Pfenning said the rigorous debate preceding the establishment of the Farmer’s privilege clause in 2015 shows that there the government had once recognized the importance of seed saving for farm sustainability and food security.
“The Minister’s response to the e-petition supports the regulatory change, claiming the Act’s seed-saving clause should never have applied to horticultural crops and hybrid varieties. This raises concerns that farmers’ rights are intentionally being narrowed over time,” Pfenning said. “Reinterpreting the law now contradicts Parliament’s decision, takes money out of Canadian farmers’ pockets, enriches the world’s largest seed companies, and ultimately weakens our national food sovereignty.”
Editor’s Note: 2026-01-16: This article has been corrected to fix an error in the subhead. rabble regrets the error.
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