A US-based group of plant breeders is launching an initiative to start open-sourcing seeds from new crops, starting with "29 new varieties of 14 different crops, including carrots, kale, broccoli and quinoa."
Irwin Goldman, a vegetable breeder at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and one of the organizers of the initiative, described the reasons for the move.
It's an attempt to restore the practice of open sharing that was the rule among plant breeders when he entered the profession more than 20 years ago.
"If other breeders asked for our materials, we would send them a packet of seed, and they would do the same for us," he says. "That was a wonderful way to work, and that way of working is no longer with us."These days, seeds are intellectual property. Some are patented as inventions. You need permission from the patent holder to use them, and you're not supposed to harvest seeds for replanting the next year.
The details are at the Open Source Seed Foundation site. The OSSI Pledge is much shorter than the GPL, but similarly to the GPL it prohibits making proprietary varieties from OSSI seeds.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Angry Jesus on Friday April 18 2014, @04:40AM
Anyone interested in where Monsanto style bio-engineering + modern capitalism might take the world should read Paolo Bacigalupi's Hugo Award winning biopunk novel, The Windup Girl. [theguardian.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 18 2014, @05:11AM
It always bugs me when there's no source code involved and some non-software project calls itself "open source".
With gadgets, there's "open", "open design", "open hardware", and "open architecture".
If "open" applies to both the hardware and the software, there's "open system".
In this case, I think that "open" would cover it.
Anyone have something more descriptive of openness in biology?
-- gewg_
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tathra on Friday April 18 2014, @08:03AM
actually open source might work here just fine.
dna is the source code, with genes as subroutines (which monsanto and their ilk would love to have all of them patented). its not perfect, but analogies arent supposed to be.
maybe we could start calling dna "biological machine language" or "bio-assembly", since thats kinda what it is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 18 2014, @07:20PM
dna
...or are you still stuck on M$'s interpretation of "open"?
If it's "open source", where can I download the source code?
What if I want to make my own modifications to the code?
Seeing my point yet?
its not perfect, but analogies arent supposed to be
I'm not asking for "perfect", simply "BETTER".
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by tathra on Friday April 18 2014, @07:42PM
see synthetic biology [synbioproject.org]. Craig Venter [ft.com] is one of the pioneers in modifying 'biological machine language'. just like how you cant alter computer source code without having a computer, you cant alter dna without having the right tools; if you dont understand the syntax of any programming language, including dna, you cant create anything, much less anything meaningful, as it either flat-out wont compile (dna - the organism dies very quickly or never comes to life) or will be full of bugs (dna - cancer, unintended consequences, etc).
(Score: 2) by tathra on Friday April 18 2014, @07:50PM
oh, and as for downloading the source code - start here [nih.gov]. try here [nih.gov] for human source code, here [nih.gov] for fruit flies, etc. (you might not actually be able to download the genomes there, but you get the point)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 18 2014, @09:39PM
[blather, blather] human [blather, blather] fruit flies [blather, blather]
The question was **Where do I download the source code for the "open source" seeds**.
Do you have an answer to THAT question?
...or simply more blather?
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by tathra on Friday April 18 2014, @09:45PM
have you never heard of dna sequencing [wikipedia.org]? you get the seeds and sequence them if you really want the source code that bad.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 19 2014, @03:52AM
are you still stuck on M$'s interpretation of "open"?
The answer from you on that should have been
"Yes, I have no clue what 'open" actually means".
you get the seeds and sequence them
The term for that is REVERSE ENGINEERING.
That is the OPPOSITE of "Open Source".
3 strikes and you're out. Thanks for playing.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by tathra on Saturday April 19 2014, @05:06AM
being anal about details defeats the whole purpose of making analogies.
but this isnt even an analogy: the "source code" for life - that is dna - is readily readable to anybody. there is nothing stopping you from sequencing except laziness. hell, its done in high school biology classes. there is no need to "reverse engineer" anything in biology, but dna sequencing wouldnt be reverse engineering anyway because the source code is already "published" and available to anyone who chooses to read it.
like i said before, analogies arent perfect. the details arent supposed to all match up perfectly, only well enough to convey a better understanding of whatever is being referenced in making the analogy. it takes a real asshole to see an analogy between 'x' and 'y' and say, "hey, 'y' doesnt match 'x' perfectly, so it doesnt work!" no shit they dont match up perfectly! if they did, we'd call 'y' 'x' instead of 'y'.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by MsgHack on Friday April 18 2014, @12:16PM
I think you could easily argue that DNA is the ultimate source code.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aristarchus on Friday April 18 2014, @07:57AM
Claiming intellectual property in living things is the same as claiming human beings are property. About time somebody asserts the right to grow food without having to worry about IP.
(Score: 3, Funny) by lx on Friday April 18 2014, @01:20PM
I'm not any old property. I'm proud to be intellectual property.
Much more refined.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Blackmoore on Friday April 18 2014, @02:55PM
I whole heartily agree.
go get some seeds.y ear/ [rareseeds.com]
http://www.rareseeds.com/the-seed-catalog-of-the-
http://www.rareseeds.com/ [rareseeds.com]