In my previous post on the new EU Common Agricultural Policy, I missed that it promotes in situ conservation of crops. At least that is my reading of Annex IX, which provides a list of practices equivalent to crop diversification. The text is a bit confusing (why are legal documents never clear?); here’s an excerpt (my bolding):
- Crop Diversification
Requirement: at least three crops, the main crop covering a maximum of 75%, and any one or more of the following applying:
— there is a more appropriate selection of crops, such as, for example, leguminous, protein crops, crops not requiring irrigation or pesticide treatments, as appropriate,
— regional varieties of old, traditional or endangered crop types are included on at least 5% of the rotated area.
The ‘and‘ does not make sense, and should surely be ‘or‘? Otherwise there would be no ‘equivalency.’
Perhaps it is a European thing to emphasize the old & traditional over the novel & rare? Either way, there are busy times to come for European on farm conservation buffs! But where should interested farmers get seed? Many of these varieties may not be registered, and I thought that exchanging such seed was not legal in Europe?
