More potty EU decisions?

In my gardening mag last week it said:

"If a proposed directive to licence seed production is adopted by the EU, the propogation of all plant material will become illegal unless an expensive licence is obtained. This would mean that growing from seed and swapping cuttings with friends would be a criminal act, unless you had a licence to do so."
Some organisations are campaigning for small growers and home gardeners to be exempt and feel it would be very sad if in future, there were no small plant sales at front gates, or stalls of plants at village fetes.
Apparently, "Should this licence come into place, home gardeners will be allowed to share seeds and cuttings with friends, but will NOT be able to sell them."

I really don't understand the point of this. All I can see is it will just put more small firms who cannot afford expensive licences out of business and also spoil things for a lot of gardeners as well. I sometimes donate young plants for raffle prizes etc. so would this be banned too? How damn stupid things are getting.

Re: More potty EU decisions?

Mups I heard this idea mentioned years ago and nothing came of it.
I think the powers that be would have great difficulty policing this .

Re: More potty EU decisions?

I do hope you're right Meg. It seems to be rearing its ugly head again. Several people round here put plants outside their houses in aid of different charities, and some sell surplus veg etc. I think it would be a shame if they had to stop.

Re: More potty EU decisions?

They do around here too Mups, I think you could get around it by not selling the plants but asking for a small donation to charity

Re: More potty EU decisions?

LOL! But you are not allowed to ask for donations to charity without written authorisation from the charity in question! What you could do is charge for the pot/container and give the plant for free!

The world has run mad!

Re: More potty EU decisions?

This is hugely important and the first I heard about it so obviously the media don't realise how important it is, my granddad created two new varieties of rhododendron in his life time and when he retired tinkering with aquilegias he created a new variety of them too. He never sold them for profit as the first two where were he worked so his employer made the profit but the third he used to fund his gardening when he had less money coming in, pension didn't run to too many new plants so this just boosted his rather lovely garden.

Many amateur gardeners manage to develop new varieties and should be encouraged to do so, and many old varieties are being kept alive by gardeners as you cannot buy them any more the only stocks are being maintained by gardeners across the country propagating them from cuttings and seeds etc they take from their own gardens.

Re: More potty EU decisions?

Is there any wonder that most folks want to leave the EU and put an end to this continual interference in matters of no consequence, which I'm sure only continues because of the need to justify their own existence on the gravy train......

Re: More potty EU decisions?

I really can't see this happening but you know the madness that is Brussels!!!
I quite often buy from houses that display plants for sale for a small donation or priced reasonably for the grower to make a bit of cash, I would hate to see that disappear.

Re: More potty EU decisions?

Nothing coming out of Brussels surprises me, they have an entire four story building over there devoted to nurturing and developing cuckoo ideas, any ideas that keep the peoples minds off the big picture, remember the straight banana and the square tomato, the orange sprouts and the rectangular potato, supposedly to make packing and shipping to member states handier. Rumour has it the next item on the agricultural sections Disneyland menu is the grading of horse manure, a fella who works for a big stable was telling me there will be three categories, day old, week old, and longer but no longer than 1 month. I supposed this is to be welcomed in a way, they eventually got around to realising what they are all about...Horse shit.

Re: More potty EU decisions?

Good un Jem !