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15 Feb ’12
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interesting
This week, scientists, farmers and sustainable food systems advocates will gather on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to celebrate an unusual group of honored guests: 29 new varieties of broccoli, celery, kale, quinoa and other vegetables and grains that are being publicly released using a novel form of ownership agreement known as the Open Source Seed Pledge.
The pledge, which was developed through a UW-Madison-led effort known as the Open Source Seed Initiative, is designed to keep the new seeds free for all people to grow, breed and share for perpetuity, with the goal of protecting the plants from patents and other restrictions down the line.
"These vegetables are part of our common cultural heritage, and our goal is to make sure these seeds remain in the public domain for people to use in the future," says UW-Madison horticulture professor and plant breeder Irwin Goldman, who helped write the pledge.
Goldman will release two carrot varieties he developed-named Sovereign and Oranje in the spirit of the event-at a public ceremony Thursday's public ceremony, which is set for 11 a.m. on the front lawn of the UW-Madison's Microbial Sciences Building, 1550 Linden Drive.
The Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) was established in 2011 by public plant breeders, farmers, non-governmental organization staff and sustainable food systems advocates from around the nation concerned about the decreasing availability of plant germplasm-seeds-for public plant breeders and farmer-breeders to work with.
Many of the seeds for our nation's big crop plants – field corn and soybeans – are already restricted through patents, licenses and other forms of intellectual property protection. Increasingly, this is happening to vegetable, fruit and small grain seeds. Members of OSSI worry that this trend could lead to a time when there's no longer any valuable plant germplasm available for public use.
3 Nov ’12
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I love seeing stuff like this. Open source is the way to go.
11 Mar ’12
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This gives me hope
Be RADICAL Grow Food
15 Feb ’12
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spotted-horses said
This gives me hope
same here
3 Nov ’12
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It's the only way to keep companies like Monsanto and ConAgra from patenting all the seeds on the planet.
15 Feb ’12
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groinkick said
It's the only way to keep companies like Monsanto and ConAgra from patenting all the seeds on the planet.
will be interesting to see if they file a lawsuit due to some arcane law, can't have people keeping seeds ya know
15 Feb ’12
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update
The Open Source Seed Initiative puts seeds in the public domain for gardeners to freely grow, breed, and share.
These days, most garden and farm crop seeds are patented and legally protected from being used to breed other varieties, or even to save and replant again, which limits the ability of gardeners, farmers, and plant breeders to improve those varieties. And because three big companies (Monsanto, Syngenta, and DuPont) own and control about half of all commercial seed sales, the restrictive nature of keeping their seeds as intellectual property helps those seed companies maintain control of a large portion of the seeds responsible for the global food supply.
In an effort to "free the seeds" from patenting, licensing, and other intellectual property protections, the Open Source Seed Initiative aims to restore the formerly common practice of open sharing among growers, by keeping certain vegetable seeds in the public domain and protecting them (and any future varieties derived from them) from being patented in the future.
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