The Open Source Seed Licence: A novel approach to safeguarding access to plant germplasm

Abstract

The laws to secure intellectual property rights on plant germplasm have been strongly developed in parallel to the ongoing seed market consolidation. Germplasm as a commons, i.e., a natural resource accessible to all members of a society, receives almost no legal protection. On the other hand, the use of germplasm and released cultivars in breeding is increasingly restricted by intellectual property rights. In this study, approaches to open source plant germplasm are discussed, and the Open Source Seed (OSS) Licence is introduced and analysed. The OSS Licence was developed by an interdisciplinary working group of plant breeders, agricultural scientists, lawyers, and commons experts in Europe. The aim is to protect germplasm as a commons, support the free exchange of germplasm, stimulate plant breeding, reduce costs, and accelerate innovation. The OSS Licence is a legal tool and novel approach that extends its reach on derivatives of licenced germplasm. It is compatible with current seed laws. Effects on the access to plant germplasm, on breeding for diverse pedoclimatic environments, socioeconomic systems, and on biodiversity as a whole can first show after a few breeding cycles. The impact of open source germplasm on these aspects needs to be monitored carefully.

Commoning the seeds: alternative models of collective action and open innovation within French peasant seed groups for recreating local knowledge commons

“…In the recent literature, a growing number of studies have considered the role of alternative seed systems as "commons", e.g., shared collective resources by local place-based peasant communities, but also as involving new innovative forms of civic engagement and stewardship towards a larger public (Wirz et al 2017;Girard and Frison 2018;Wolter and Sievers-Glotzbach 2019;Mazé et al 2021). Inspired by the Open Source movement, most debates have focused on the legal options for preventing the patenting of genetic resources and their privatization (Kloppenburg 2010, Wirz et al 2017Kotschi and Horneburg 2018). In Europe, peasant seed groups have played a leading role in the reappropriation of peasant seed rights through the so-called "liberate our seeds" movement.…”

Heritability and Variability of Quality Parameters of Tomatoes in Outdoor Production

“…In Germany, tomato cultivars are currently being developed by breeders who work according to organic standards [11], e.g., Kultursaat e.V. (https://www.kultursaat.org), and by the Organic Outdoor Tomato Project [12,13]. Organic breeding programs have increased their impact during the past 15 years in Europe [7].…”

The Wizards of Svalöf

“…They would use mass selection in order to improve the yield or quality of the next season's harvest. However, hybridization, a breeding technique that provides protection against seed savings, paved the way for controlling plant genetic material and reproductive capacities (Kotschi andHorneburg 2018, Muzaka 2018). Since hybrids lose their vigour after one generation, farmers turned to outside the farm sources for seed, thus became increasingly dependent on external seeds.…”