The Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) is dedicated to maintaining fair and open access to plant genetic resources worldwide in order to ensure the availability of germplasm to farmers, gardeners, breeders, and communities of this and future generations.
The Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) engages in education and outreach that promotes sharing rather than restricting access to plant germplasm, recognizes and supports the work of plant breeders of all kinds, and supports a diversified and decentralized seed industry. The core strategy for achieving these goals is the dissemination and propagation of the OSSI Pledge and of OSSI-Pledged varieties, both of which preserve the rights of farmers, gardeners, and breeders to freely use, save, replant, and improve seed of OSSI-Pledged material.
Seeds -like air, water, & soil- are part of the commons; they are part of something we all own. You can own the physical seed, but you can't own the genetics behind it because, as Gary Nabhan says, '99% of the improvement on our food crops was done 300 years ago. And what we've done in the last 300 years amounts to less than 1%. Because our ancestors took tomatoes from some crazy little weed to these heirlooms; they took corn from some inedible little hard rock-type grain into all the myriads of all it is. What we've done is just polish it up.' I can't patent something that is part of the Creative Commons. These are our genetic resources; these are things we share in common. ...
One of the challenges:
Biopiracy: "Biotech giants are going into forests (eg. The Amazon) & obtaining utility patents on native wild plants, or constituents of them, or some process or trait. They are even going into traditional heirloom varieties & getting utility patents like an iPhone or a carburetor as if they invented a concept like heat tolerance in broccoli. And this is happening at breakneck speed. Heat tolerance in broccoli is currently an owned utility patent! Nobody invented that! Broccoli has had to deal with heat for centuries! Somebody just wrote it down & spent the money & attorney fees to get it filed with the patent office."
Part of the role of those of us engaged in commerce is to educate the consumers about the kind of things that we face. As a plant breeder, I could get a knock on my door -or more likely an email- someday saying, 'You're in violation of this patent. You owe us royalties right now.' That could happen with a variety that I breed a unique trait of; because if I don't patent it then it's wide open for somebody else to. So that's why putting it in the public domain through the Open Source Seed Initiative at least gives us a base line, saying 'I've pledged this to open source. Genetics are stewarded by community...'
...a decentralized software development model that encourages open collaboration. A main principle of open-source software development is peer production, with products such as source code, blueprints, and documentation freely available to the public. The open-source movement in software began as a response to the limitations of proprietary code. ...
Open source promotes universal access via an open-source or free license to a product's design or blueprint, and universal redistribution of that design or blueprint. ... The open-source software movement arose to clarify copyright, licensing, domain, and consumer issues.
Generally, open source refers to a computer program in which the source code is available to the general public for use or modification from its original design. Open-source code is meant to be a collaborative effort, where programmers improve upon the source code and share the changes within the community. Code is released under the terms of a software license. Depending on the license terms, others may then download, modify, and publish their version (fork) back to the community.
Loxley Clovis wrote:Cool, thanks for your contribution to the commons Andrew!
What kinds of things do you like to 3D print?
I've been a GNU/Linux user & proponent myself since 2007 & the automated veggie system on my truck uses 