Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

On the 5th of July 2023, the European Commission presented a new Plant Reproductive Material directive with a general objective of ensuring high quality and diversity that contributes to food security, protects biodiversity, and restores forest ecosystems. The aims are to increase efficiency and promote and support mainly sustainable innovation. In the proposal, there are three Options, Option 1 - Highest degree of flexibility, Option 2 - Balancing flexibility and harmonisation Option 3 - Highest degree of harmonisation, and the legal text is based on Option 2.
The objective of this master thesis is to examine the discursive tendencies of food security in the proposal and to discuss how the proposal might challenge and affect small-scale farmers who are exchanging seeds in kind.
o What discursive tendencies of food security can be seen in the European Commission’s proposal for a directive on plant reproductive materials?
o How does the discourse of food security differentiate between options 1, 2 and 3 in the proposal?
The study was carried out firstly by a content analysis to find relevant materials, and then by adding a problematizing dimension, a discourse analysis of sort. To perform the discourse analysis an analytical framework was made, which is based on other researchers' definitions, and is the base of the discourse analysis. Based on the researcher's work, two discourses could be used: Liberal Food Security and Food Sovereignty. By applying the analytical framework to the material, it was possible to see what discourse was most prominent.
The results indicate that both Liberal Food Security and Food Sovereignty can be found in the material, however, they do differentiate between the options presented by the European Commission. Liberal Food Security is most prominent in Option 1, but also provides the most flexibility for Food Sovereignty, Liberal Food Security is most prominent in Option 2, but has some tendencies toward Food Sovereignty, and in Option 3 Liberal Food Security is the only discourse of the two that is prominent.