Plant Breeders Release First ‘Open Source Seeds’
April 17th, 2014Via: NPR:
A group of scientists and food activists is launching a Thursday to change the rules that govern seeds. They’re releasing 29 new varieties of crops under a new “open source pledge” that’s intended to safeguard the ability of farmers, gardeners and plant breeders to share those seeds freely.
It’s inspired by the example of open source software, which is freely available for anyone to use but cannot legally be converted into anyone’s proprietary product.
At an event on the campus of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, backers of the new Open Source Seed Initiative will pass out 29 new varieties of 14 different crops, including carrots, kale, broccoli and quinoa. Anyone receiving the seeds must pledge not to restrict their use by means of patents, licenses or any other kind of intellectual property. In fact, any future plant that’s derived from these open source seeds also has to remain freely available as well.
Irwin Goldman, a vegetable breeder at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, helped organize the campaign. 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.
UW is big in the Agribusiness scene; I view Prof. Goldman’s new venture with skepticism.
And I’m sure that the last name is just a coincidence, but Amy Goldman, of the Lilian Goldman Charitable Trust, was instrumental in stealing Seed Savers Exchange’s seed bank and making it available to corporations for patenting:
“But Amy Goldman [the new head of the board of directors] doesn’t share my reverence and respect for SSE’s seed collection. Her unilateral actions have now made possible the patenting of 485 varieties that [under her leadership] SSE deposited at Svalbard’s official opening in February 2008. [Svalbard, a giant arctic “Doomsday Seed Vault” located in northern Norway, was built by the Rockefeller and Gates Foundations and Agribusiness giants Syngenta and Monsanto – the largest patent owner in the world of genetically modified seed. It is operated by gene bank NorGen (See I.O. 12/07 and 10/08).]”
http://proliberty.com/observer/20090920.html
I’d love to know where Prof. Goldman, a plant geneticist, got these seeds and where he’s getting money from.
http://horticulture.wisc.edu/faculty-and-staff-2/faculty-and-staff/name/irwin-goldman/