A new crop of unowned seeds is bringing biodiversity back to farming:
Alexander Klepnev CC BY 4.0
When Jack Kloppenburg looks out over his sprawling vegetable garden in rural Wisconsin, he sees half a dozen arm-thick green-striped squash called Candystick Dessert Delicata, and a gaggle of bright yellow Goldini squash among the lush green. "These are so delicious!" he exclaims with all the enthusiasm only a lifelong gardener can muster. But what's special about the vegetables is not just their taste: They have all been grown from open source seeds developed by Oregon farmer Carol Deppe, a Harvard-trained geneticist and board chair of the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI).
Most people have heard of open source software, maybe also of open source beer (Free beer for all!) or open source pharmaceutical research. The principle is the same: Someone developed the seeds — for cowpeas, corn, rye and more — and now offers the resource for everybody to share.
Just like software development has been co-opted by a few global companies like Microsoft and Apple, the international seed development and trade, too, is controlled by a few big giants like Bayer (Monsanto), Corteva (DuPont) and ChemChina (Syngenta). A 2012 Oxfam study found that four companies dominate more than 60 percent of the global trade with grains.
When we buy cereal or bread, few pay attention to the fact that most grains are protected or even patented. Most farmers don't own the seeds they sow on their fields. "They are renting them," Kloppenburg, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-founder of OSSI says with disgust. The problem with that? "A few global companies have the monopolies on global seed trade, and they breed cash crops like corn and soy, purely for money. They don't care about biodiversity, world hunger or about the small farmer." What sounds like a business problem impacts everybody, Kloppenburg insists. "These few gene giants on top of the food chain decide what ends up on our plates."
In 2012, Kloppenburg and half a dozen like-minded agriculture experts founded OSSI as an alternative to the monopolies. OSSI's aim is the "free flow and exchange of genetic resources, of plant breeding and variety development," Kloppenburg says. With global warming, disease and changing climatic patterns, "we need novel plant varieties that are capable of responding to the changes. Farm to table is popular, but we really need to talk about seed to table."
The movement faces an uphill battle, particularly in the US where most farmers plant seeds that are patented by the big corporations. Still, about 50 seed breeders have already signed on with OSSI in the US to offer nearly 500 seed varieties. And other open source seed organizations are making their own way in Europe, Argentina, India and more.
[...] Legally, Open Source Seeds (OSS) in Europe works slightly differently because of EU seed protection laws. While in the US the OSSI pledge would be hard to enforce if challenged in court, Johannes Kotschi, the founder of OSS Germany, went with an open source licensing model. The license is printed on every OSS seed package in Europe. Whoever opens an OSS package agrees to never patent these seeds or future breeding of them. OSS cooperates with bakeries such as Le Brot in Cologne that offer bread baked with OSS wheat and rye, not least to raise awareness.
Just like software, "we want to go viral," Kotschi says. In North America, he notes, cannabis breeders are interested in the OSSI strategy. "Cannabis is going to be a multibillion dollar market," he says. "The small breeders fear for their seeds. They are interested in using the open source license to protect themselves while making the seeds available to others."
(Score: 0, Troll) by crafoo on Tuesday February 14, @03:43PM (3 children)
contaminate nearby monsanto fields then sue them. turn about is fair play. ruin the entire business model of patenting genetics.
Monsanto family - an interesting history BTW. Jews who were kicked out of Portugal for doing typical jew things to the native populace and government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto_family [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Gaaark on Tuesday February 14, @06:05PM (2 children)
Holy Mountain!:
started off up-moddable:
ended down-moddable:
#crafoo must be an American. :/
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday February 15, @06:24PM (1 child)
Up-moddable? No. "[C]ontaminate nearby monsanto fields then sue them" is ignorant bullshit. First, it's so ludicrous that only a moron would believe that you can be sued for mixing public domain content, whether words or DNA sequences with your own data. Second, those seeds aren't produced by pollination. The plants are cloned.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 3, Informative) by Gaaark on Thursday February 16, @01:51AM
He's just referencing how Monsanto sued farmers who had fields next to theirs because of cross-contamination (or however): suddenly the farmers had Monsanto plants growing in their fields without paying Monsanto.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto_Canada_Inc_v_Schmeiser [wikipedia.org]
"At the time, Roundup Ready canola was in use by several farmers in the area. Schmeiser claimed that he did not plant the initial Roundup Ready canola in 1997, and that his field of custom-bred canola had been accidentally contaminated. While the origin of the plants on Schmeiser's farm in 1997 remains unclear, the trial judge found that with respect to the 1998 crop, "none of the suggested sources [proposed by Schmeiser] could reasonably explain the concentration or extent of Roundup Ready canola of a commercial quality" ultimately present in Schmeiser's 1998 crop."
and
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/12/monsanto-sues-farmers-seed-patents [theguardian.com]
This type of thing.
Monsanto, in any/every case, is a plague.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday February 14, @04:07PM (2 children)
I only buy non-gmo and heirloom seeds.
Little known fact about the Iraq war: Monsanto had farmer's seeds confiscated, that had been in their family's possession since long before the US became a nation - before England became a nation for that matter. Seeds cultivated, saved, and handed down from before the Roman empire. Then Monsanto sold their hybrid GMO trash to the farmers.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday February 15, @06:33PM (1 child)
Interesting, but it needs a citation before I mod you up. This is the internet, proof or it's bullshit.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 15, @11:29PM
Paul Bremer, order 81 are the key words. This link will give you more than enough to search for your own citations, just in case you don't like mine. https://ejatlas.org/conflict/order-81s-effect-on-agriculture [ejatlas.org] "No more saving seeds from your crops, guys. You gotta buy from my buddies so I get a YUUUUGE payoff!" No mods necessary, I'll be happy if you only see the crap pulled on Iraq and Iraqi farmers.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday February 14, @06:04PM (1 child)
Farming is all about breeding! Restricting the natural right to breed with patent protections is beyond the pale. I've heard of completely crazy shit like farmers being sued because some of their current year's crops came from the seeds from wind pollination of their previous year's crop, and that wind blew from a neighbor's farm who'd used some ag giant's genetically modified plants. Monsanto got 2nd place in the 2014 Worst Company in America contest, beating 2 big banks, Citi and Wells Fargo, a telecoms giant, Time Warner, and WalMart. Incredible that a company with no direct connection to the vast majority of consumers should beat out such titanically well known brands, but they did.
The Right to Repair is another push back from the egregious attempts to reduce farmers to total dependency on tractor and farm implement manufacturers for even the most minor of repairs.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday February 15, @03:31AM
Just the customers that eat food on a regular basis.
But yes, helping farmers free themselves from the tyranny of the big ag corporations should be a priority. It's not just because of how evil big-ag is and how much benefit this would bring to farmers, it's also vitally important for human survival. Because these kinds of seeds bring large-scale standardization, a.k.a. monoculture. And monoculture means that any disease or pest that evolves to target an extremely common species can easily wipe out basically the entire crop. And we don't have a good way of recovering from that.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Informative) by psa on Wednesday February 15, @02:04AM (1 child)
Unfortunately OSSI is almost certainly unenforceable, and although Europe has enforceable seed laws, they still aren't built for true-breeding crops that aren't part of a designated region mark. I've spoken with a lot of seed producers (and I am one) and plant breeders (of which I am also one--I've even got my name on at least one OSSI seed commonly distributed), and the strongest power it seems to exert is advertisement of intent. If a company starts selling OSSI seeds without the OSSI mark, or uses such seed openly without following the rules, it's easy to name and shame. Similar to tactics used with publishers, distributors and manufacturers, if you can show that the company is not supporting the breeders and producers that make them money, then it's a lot easier to exert market pressure against them.
The largest weakness in OSSI, even if you manage to get enforcement on the sale as a binding agreement of use, is the production loophole. Similar to the analog loophole, buyers who purchase the plants or products of the seed are not bound, even by stated intent by the OSSI. Since the entire purpose of this seed is to be shareable, you can always recover the genetics of the seed from the produce, so if you save seed correctly is absolutely the same as the original. And since the agreement does not bind purchasers of such produce, they can do whatever they want with the seed. It's not clear to me if OSS in Europe really can get around that loophole (I'm in the US), but it's a hard one to close in a seed license without violating the very open usage rights you're trying to protect.
I support the intent, though, and I've written about the overall state of the industry and the various secondary impacts of consolidating control of our seed supplies in the hands of fertilizer companies, but I'm not trying to advertise here, so I'll skip the links. I just want to emphasize that control of seed is a major issue with lots of complex repercussions, from the types of products being developed to the types of studies being done, to the people appointed to political Ag positions and the policies they're willing to create and enforce. In a world where seed must be purchased every year, and that seed has been bred to only grow well with chemical fertilizers that have to be purchased every year, herbicides since these varieties can't outcompete weeds, fungicides and antimicrobials since the plants were only bred and trialed in sterile field situations, hormones to get them to work with the season to produce properly, and insecticides since they lack or have very one-dimensional defenses, then you have an agricultural industry that's entirely at the mercy of the chemical industry (which, again, owns all the major seed companies), and completely unable to adapt to climate shifts, natural events, or supply chain issues.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Reziac on Wednesday February 15, @02:57AM
Do you know Joseph Lofthouse? He produces landrace veggies of various sorts, under harsh conditions, and does make open seed available.
I haven't made any particular effort myself, but have accidentally developed a hot-season pea (still producing in August), and a new variety of potato that keeps like no other. (And an Invasion of the Feral Tomatoes. It's to where I treat them like weeds.) In a couple more years I may have enough to share.
The big problem really is that farmers need to make a profit to stay in business, and commercial seed is more reliable at producing a profitable crop. But it does produce lock-in, and for crops at the scale that feeds billions, there's no alternative to reliability. Small producers cannot feed the world, but we can bank what we have against future disaster.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.