Gov. Jerry Brown has signed an amendment to the California Seed Law, exempting “non-commercial seed sharing activities from industrial labeling, testing, and permitting requirements,” says Shareable.
AB 1810, also known as the California Seed Exchange Democracy Act, recognizes that local seed libraries and community seed-sharing groups do not have the budgets to handle, or size to necessitate, the same regulations as large-scale operators.
“The law allows seed sharing and saving to continue on a local level, which supports food security, urban agriculture, climate resilience, healthy eating, and a stronger local seed systems,” says Shareable. In 2014, Shareable joined with the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC), Richmond Grows, Seed Matters, and SeedSavers Exchange to launch the Save Seed Sharing campaign after “agriculture officials in Pennsylvania cracked down on the Joseph T. Simpson public library’s seed library.”
Since then, exemption bills similar to AB 1810 have been passed in Minnesota, Illinois and Nebraska.