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| The Open Source Seed Initiative |
The Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) was established in the USA in 2011 with the mission to create a reservoir of seeds that couldn’t be patented. Its first open-source, un-patentable broccoli, kale and celery seeds were shared in the spring of 2014.
In this era of ownership, the consolidation of seed companies has meant the consolidation of control over germplasm, the industry’s most essential tool. The plant breeders behind OSSI decry that trend for the constraints it puts on their individual breeding work, but they also see its damage in global terms, in terms of decreasing variety and democratic processes around food sovereignty. For most of human history, seeds have naturally been part of the commons. But with the advent of plant-related intellectual property, they become a resource to be mined for private gain. It took seed companies nearly a century to be able to apply utility patents (1980).
Inspired by open-source software, OSSI’s initial idea was to use “the master’s tools” of intellectual property, but in ways the master never intended: to create and enforce an ethic of sharing. Unfortunately however, developing open source licenses for seeds is not that easy. Plant breeding isn’t governed by copyright law, and by breeding a plant one does not automatically own it. One would need to patent the plant first in order to then claim the “patent left” of declaring it open source. Moreover, normally patents and licenses need to last for only one generation of plants. But open source was supposed to allow the material to proliferate, which means OSSI would need to make sure that its license accompanied every new generation of plant.
OSSI is continuing to look for alternatives to the increasing seed monopolies held by companies such as Monsanto, Syngenta and Dow. For the moment, its licence works as a pledge which works as a “copyleft commitment”.
This text is freely readapted from Lisa Hamilton’s article ‘Linux for Lettuce’, VQR, summer 2014. and OSSI website.