Les semences entre critique et expérience: les ressorts pratiques d’une contestation paysanne

In the wake of the anti-GMO struggles of the nineties and the toughening of seed laws, the 2000s saw the emergence of a farmers’ movement dedicated to the reappropriation of seeds. Spanning over a 10 year period, the paper looks at the movement’s drivers and its transformations. The reappropriation by a group of farmers of seeds takes root in a critical discourse towards agricultural modernity, which translates into 3 dimensions – the rejection of modern plant breeding techniques, opposition to the subaltern position of farmers, denunciation of the instrumental relationship between industrial farming and nature. Yet the movement has also enriched itself and been fashioned by a direct engagement with plants. This case study contributes to a better understanding of the ongoing ecologisation of agriculture. Moreover it provides a comprehensive illustration of a protest movement that is altered by the very object that it contributes to shape