*Von: *Jack Kloppenburg <jrkloppe@wisc.edu <mailto:jrkloppe@wisc.edu>>
*Datum: *16. Mai 2014 16:47:10 MESZ
*An: *Jack Kloppenburg <jrkloppe@wisc.edu <mailto:jrkloppe@wisc.edu>>
*Betreff: **Open Source Seed Initiative*

Good friends,

Thank you all for contacting us about the Open Source Seed Initiative
(OSSI) and our April 17 action.

I apologize for this impersonal mass mailing. I would have preferred
to contact each of you individually, but the number of you who want to
know what OSSI is doing makes this collective response much more
efficient. That we have heard from so many individuals and
organizations around the world is very exciting - we can be a global
movement to “free the seed”!

On April 17, 2014, OSSI organized an action on the campus of the
University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin. We released seed of 36
cultivars of 14 species, from seven breeders, under an open source
“pledge.” In speeches at the event, OSSI’s “free” seeds were compared
to the “indentured” seeds covered by IPRs. OSSI seed packets were
distributed to the crowd, which then collectively read the pledge aloud.

We received substantial press coverage. Social media then carried
reports of our action around the world, which is likely how you
learned of OSSI’s work. To learn more about OSSI and our action, go
to OSSI’s web page at www.opensourceseedinitiative.org
or visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/opensourceseedinitiative
A set of links to media reports on the April 17 action is on our web
page, and a nice set of images of the April 17 action is available at
http://ecals.cals.wisc.edu/2014/04/18/open-source-seed-rollout-draws-a-crowd/

For more information on the April 17 action, see the attached pdf
documents:
“April 17 press release final” -  for a pre-action account, listing of
breeders and cultivars
“April 17 follow-up letter” - for a post-action account
See also an extensive article by journalist Lisa Hamilton in the
/Virginia Quarterly Review/  that has just been published and provides
a third-party analysis of OSSI’s work:
http://www.vqronline.org/reporting-articles/2014/05/linux-lettuce

For those of you who want to go deeper, I also attach three documents
that - when read in sequence - outline the thinking that has informed
the development of OSSI. The sequence is “Kloppenburg 2010,”
“Kloppenburg 2014,” Kloppenburg et al 2014.” That final document
(“Kloppenburg et al 2014") is quite short and is especially important
since it explains OSSI’s abandonment of efforts to develop a legally
binding license and our subsequent commitment to an ethically
sanctioned “pledge.”

OK, so what is OSSI about and where are we going, and how might you be
involved?

The Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) was established in May, 2012,
by a group of public plant breeders, small seed company plant
breeders, farmer-breeders, and advocates for seed sovereignty. OSSI
was formed in order to enhance vigorous innovation in plant breeding
by the creation of a licensing framework for germplasm exchange that
would preserve the right to unencumbered use of shared seeds and their
progeny in subsequent use. We had hoped that we could develop a
legally defensible license for germplasm in the way that the free and
open source software movement developed its licenses.

We spent nearly two years trying to develop a legally defensible
license. While we found that we could write a legally defensible
license, we also found that it would be unworkable for a variety of
reasons (these reasons are outlined in “Kloppenburg et al 2014"). In
summary, the legal requirements of the license are so complex as to
make transmission of the license impractical and unlikely. Second,
drawing as it would on the legal “tools of the master” (see
“Kloppenburg 2014"), a license is philosophically and politically
unacceptable to many organizations, mostly but not entirely in the
Global South (we are especially grateful to colleagues at GRAIN and
ETC Group for helping us understand this perspective).

In February of 2014, OSSI made the hard but considered decision to
abandon efforts to develop a legally defensible license and to shift
to a pledge. This moves OSSI’s discourse and action from the legal
field to the terrain of norms and ethics. We have found this shift to
be stimulating, reinvigorating,  and productive. The licensing
approach was pulling us into a policing and bureaucratic orientation
that was not congenial. Although our pledge is likely not legally
binding, it is easily  transmissible, it is viral, it is an
uncompromising commitment to free exchange and use, and it is a very
effective tool for outreach and education. The pledge is printed on
all OSSI-distributed packets and reads:
*“This Open Source Seed Pledge is intended to ensure your freedom to
use the seed contained herein in any way you choose, and to make sure
those freedoms are enjoyed by all subsequent users. By opening this
packet, you pledge that you will not restrict others' use of these
seeds and their derivatives by patents, licenses, or any other means.
You pledge that if you transfer these seeds or their derivatives you
will acknowledge the source of these seeds and accompany your transfer
with this pledge.”**
*
The response to our April 17 action appears to confirm our decision to
go with a pledge rather than a license. Not only have we received
expressions of support from around the world, we have received over
300 orders for OSSI’s free (as in speech, not as in beer!) seed from
14 countries. There is clearly substantial interest in the US and
internationally in what OSSI is doing. The potential for advocacy is
enormous. Further, the demand for, and willing ness to pay for, OSSI
seed was unexpected and substantial. This demand is likely not
principally related to the agronomic characteristics of the seed, but
to its sociopolitical content. It would appear that there is very
considerable potential for supplying a market for “free seed” that is
analogous to the market for “fair trade.” The implication is that
carrying “free” seed in a commercial seed catalog can be attractive to
small seed companies.

OSSI will proceed with its work in the United States. We emphasize
that we have no intention of becoming a seed company or a distributor
of seed. We hope to establish a brand and logo associated with our
pledge. We hope that breeders, seed savers, seed libraries, gardeners,
and farmers will choose to exchange and share materials using our
pledge. We especially hope that small, independent seed companies will
offer OSSI-branded seed as part of their regular product mix (as High
Mowing Organic Seeds is doing now - see
http://www.highmowingseeds.com/organic-seeds-midnight-lightning-zucchini.html).
OSSI is envisioned as a vehicle for providing the organizing core of a
network of free seed advocates.

Here in the USA, OSSI intends to proceed now to:
•    register OSSI as a nonprofit organization
•    develop our web site as a resource for information on open source
seed
•    develop an OSSI “brand”
•    send mailers of OSSI varieties to prominent people and
organizations as outreach
•    plan a second release of OSSI varieties for 2015
•    work with our member seed companies to offer OSSI-branded cultivars

While OSSI is US-based and US-oriented, there is clearly a large and
global reservoir of interest in and support for “open source seed.”
Can OSSI help facilitate development and growth of a global movement
in support of free and open source seed?

OSSI understands that thinking about application of open source
mechanisms to seed has been going on all over the world for some time,
and that conditions vary considerably by place and sociopolitics. We
do not propose to insist on any particular approach. We have, however,
engaged and thought through many of the issues  - practical and
theoretical - that you are encountering and that you are asking us
about. We hope that our experience will be useful to your own work.
Responding individually to your comments and queries will take come
time. Would it not be cool and productive if a bunch of us could get
together at one place at the same time? Can we find funds to support
an international  conference/workshop on free and open source seeds?

After you process the information in this message and the attached
documents, please let us hear from you. How can OSSI be useful to you?
Can we build an international network?

Please forward this material to anyone you think may be interested in
OSSI or the movement to free the seed.

Cheers to all.

Jack


--
Jack Kloppenburg
Professor, Department of Community and Environmental Sociology
Director, GreenHouse Residential Learning Community
Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
340A Agricultural Hall
University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI  53706  USA
jrkloppe@wisc.edu
jrkloppe@gmail.com
Phone: 608-262-6867
www.dces.wisc.edu/faculty/kloppenburg/index.php

"Well," she said, "you have a high tolerance for lunatics, don't you?"