Press release

New consultation on conservation and amateur vegetable varieties

Protecting genetic variation in vegetables by encouraging the growing of heritage varieties and new varieties intended specifically for gardeners.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Published: 4 August 2010

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

The Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) would like to hear from anyone who markets vegetable seed to amateur gardeners as part of a consultation on the implementation of new European legislation. The legislation aims to protect genetic variation in vegetables by encouraging the growing of heritage varieties and new varieties intended specifically for gardeners.

It will provide a simpler route to getting a variety onto the UK National List or the EU Common Catalogue, which is a requirement for marketing. Fera’s consultation aims to implement the legislation with the minimum of red tape and regulatory burden.

More information about the consultation is available at archive.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/veg-variety/index.htm. To request a consultation pack email vegetable.varieties@fera.gsi.gov.uk or call 01223 342375.

Notes

• The consultation on the implementation of Directive 2009/145/EC will run from 4 August 2010 to 29 October 2010.
• It has come to our attention that external users experienced difficulty sending emails to the mailbox vegetable.varieties@fera.gsi.gov.uk during the period 4 August to 15 August inclusive. If you sent an email during this period I would be grateful if you could resend your correspondence to this mailbox. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Published 4 August 2010