b'OPEN SOURCE SEED,A HOAX OR A WAKE-UP CALL?OPEN SOURCEis a trend in various industries.and localised scale. One may wonder whether their It started to take root in the software industryvarieties will soon become important and unavoidable (Mozilla), followed by biotechnology (CAMBIA) andparent for conventional breeding.publishing, where the creative commons conceptsThe NO also relates to the (initial) purpose of the have taken root. Several of these trends are based inopen source seed initiatives, i.e. freeing the source, i.e. an opposition against corporate power generated bythe genetic resources. The American initiative took the exclusive rights provided by patents and copyright.patenting in the breeding sector as the argument to Others have a positive goal, i.e. to enhance participa- launch their quest. The source is however completely tion by a much wider population to generate, validateopen in plant breeders rights, which is the dominant and share information (e.g. Wikipedia). IP system for breeders elsewhere, so there is hardly a NIELS LOUWAARS The seed sector has a very good story to tell withneed for an open source initiative. However, both initia-Niels Louwaars is theregard to its contributions to societal goals, but intives added the freedom of farmers to freely save and managing director atparts of society, the corporate image and the use ofsell farm saved seed, which has little to do with open-Plantum, the Dutchpatents create questions, so we could expect that alsoing the source, but instead support to freeriding on the association for theour sector would be challenged. It is there now. Theinnovative work of others. This also relates directly to plant reproductionUniversity of Wisconsin developed an Open Sourcethe lack of business model.material sector. TheSeed Initiative several years ago, which was followed members of Plantumin Germany more recently. Access to freed plant are active in breeding,genetic resources is made conditional to users making propagation, produc- them available under the same open source condi-tion and trade oftionsthat no IP is vested. The system should thus seeds, bulbs, tubers,go viral and force breeders to join and thus stopWe agree that the source should remain open cuttings and youngprotecting their products through IP. plants. Should we worry? Yes and NO! for all breeders, but not in their way. The YES relates to the fact that we should not take our license to produce for granted and that IP protec-tion is a key element of the opposition that we face. Genetic resources are natural resources, whether they are derived from nature or created in our laboratories. As a result, debates in society can easily derail whenThe initiatives are small, limited to some public such resources are privatised. So even when the initia- institutions and breeders catering for the (bio)dynamic tive will not go viral, similar to Richard Jeffersons BiOSpart of the organic sector. When they would grow, and CAMBIA initiatives in plant biotechnology, then stillthough, they would restrict the breeders exemption the emergence of the initiative should make us thinkfor conventional breeders in a similar way that patents twice about our public image. do. They close off actual access to genetic resources The NO relates to the chances of the initiativesdespite their intent to open the source.growing and capturing a significant share of geneticTheir business models are yet unclear and depend resources for any crop. The American initiative useson voluntary benefit sharing from chain partners, char-a Pledge (patents are costly to use in open sourceity and public money. Through those lines they may strategies compared to copyright); the Germans usegenerate sympathy in parts of society. We should study a bag tag license contract that they hope to enforcetheir motives in order to better position the many good through the Nagoya Protocol which requires breed- things that the plant breeding & seed sector does for ers to be able to show legality of their use of geneticsociety. We agree that the source should remain open resources. Currently, the open source initiative isfor all breeders, but not in their way.embraced by breeders in a particular section of theThis article does not necessarily reflect the views of organic sector. These breeders operate at a limitedall Plantum members.SW36/ SEEDWORLD.COMOCTOBER 2019'