Slashdot Mirror
Group Tries To Open Source Seeds
jenwike writes The Open Source Seed Initiative is a passionate group that wants to ensure their seeds are never patented, but making sure seeds are free for use and distribution by anyone isn't as easy as you might think. Part of the equation are plant characteristics, like an extended head on lettuce — is that an invention? Or, would you argue that it is the product of the collective sharing of material that improves the whole crop over time? In this report, one farmer says, "If you're not exchanging germplasm, you're cutting your own throat."
"If you're not exchanging germplasm, you're cutting your own throat."
That's what I always say too! Except for here it might actually make sense.
Twitter.com/TrentonHyatt
Sterile seeds that cannot be harvested from the plants it grows is a sure way of making sure humanity will starve to death after society falls apart.
My people were farmers. There was a story I was told as a kid.
A farmer went on a long journey. When he came back, he had a new corn seed. He planted it and had yields 50 bushels per acre higher he had last year and it was much higher than all his neighbors. His neighbors wanted to buy seed from the farmer. He refused to sell it to him.
The next year, the farmer's yield was only 35 bushels per acre better than his neighbors. Every year it decreased, until his yield per acre was back at the original amount.
The moral of the story is twofold. First, crops germinate.
Second, a rising tide raises all boats if you let it. Just because your neighbors also have more grain doesn't mean you'll have less. With more grain, you can raise more head of cattle, have more chickens, reduce the amount of grain and begin raising vegetables. Even if the price of grain declines, the amount you can do with that grain should offset the decline.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
A friend of mine was coming back from France and was grilled about bringing back non-GMO seeds. Ebola is OK to bring into the country, but not non-GMO seeds. You can thank Monsanto for that.
(in the near future, in a United Nations court of law)
"Monsanto, you have been accused of crimes against humanity."
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Plant patents were originally only intended to apply to non-sexual reproduction. Courts changed that in 2001, Congress remained silent, and no president seems to have made this a big issue when appointing judges.
Congress and the executive are condoning the creeping extension of the patent system while at the same time shoving billions in the hands of big agribusinesses. Like 1984's "two minutes of hate", the anti-corporate talk by many politicians is just a distraction from the reality that it is they themselves that are supporting all of this.
I don't know about seed sourcing, but I would buy a sausage from that guy. Onna stick.
As an interested lay person, I'm thrilled to hear about this initiative. Not to sound ungrateful, but I would really really wish and hope that
- This initiative will always retain the bazaar mindset, and not get bogged down by bureaucracy
- This initiative will spread into the continents where this is needed the most - Asia and Africa.
- The options for seeds grows beyond vegetables and into grains and other basic nutrition foods. Ref: http://www.opensourceseediniti...
- They use this platform to spread awareness and accessibility to some of the really hardy native crops in various parts of the world that are dying out. Many of these are naturally drought and pest resistant, grow very easily, and in some cases, have much better nutritional value than many of the foods that are today more fashionable.
The moringa plant, for example.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
To compare (an example):
100 grams of moringa leaves has 9.3 g protein, 434 mg calcium, 738 g vitamin A, and 164 mg vitamin C
100 grams of spinach leaves has 2.9 g protein, 99 mg calcium, 469 g vitamin A, and 28 mg vitamin C
And this tree grows even in a desert. But I don't want to goo offtopic. This was just an example.
My only hope is that a platform like this - can and should - make knowledge and seeds accessible to all. We can literally solve world hunger and world health by doing this.
And what would that accomplish? If the courts recognize those patents, of course companies will get them.
The problem is with the courts and the laws, not with Monsanto. Neither party has done sh*t to address this. One party remains silent, while the other party hides its own corrupt agenda behind fake anti-corporate rhetoric.
Nope, but secure channel issues are already visible.
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
GMO has nothing to do with it. It's more about preventing disease, nematodes, and other things getting here because someone was an idiot.
GMO seeds are highly regulated, grown by and certified by seed growers, and usually carry a guarantee to be free of disease, but still, I doubt you'd be able to bring those across too.
https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/600/kw/seeds/sno/1
Not really, because in this case you can make money with the plants grown from the seeds, thus motivating to keep the quality assurance good (or people will buy from another vendor).
In software, open source is tricky because you can't directly make money off of it (people can just make unlimited copies for free), and that leaves many projects improperly funded, which in turn can lead to bad QA and things like Heartbleed and Shellshock.
Patents have a limited span, no? When the patent runs out, it's anybody's game. So, what's the problem?
quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.
Patenting biologicals or any other methods to sustain life should be banned then such efforts would not be required. IMHO such patents are highly unethical and do nothing for humanity as a whole.
is going to take a shit right on your head. Then bill you for royalties for the shit.
During the depression of the last century many members of the communities were "marks" ( a mark on the fence or tree at the end of a drive where a human could find work, shelter and most importantly a meal without questions or judgements or sermons or any encumbrance) The faith in the inherent goodness of human kind is all that was asked.
Perhaps the seeds of our toils are of greater import than seeds of gold with shackles attached that are currently being horded away by some people and their corporate constructs. Indeed we reap what we sow. But enough about the Mennonite reasoning. On to why hording and narrowing of a any genotype is dangerous and destructive
For Example take fish culture;
Fish culture practices on the West Coast have shown that fish modified to behave like farm animals destroy their own stock and become nonviable over a very short period of time in evolutionary terms. Perhaps in the same way seed culturing will yield the same results if a robust source of unmodified stock is not always freely distributed and maintained by individuals with the foresight to see past the almighty dollar!
If you have a seed people are going to want (more than say RoundUpReady or whatever is patented, etc) you're going to have to do some genetic modifications either through breeding or more direct/exotic methods.
But as soon as it starts working or having value the FDA will start asking for records about what you started with, unusual behavior, how much revenue you are making, what your prayers are like, and which political organizations you are affiliated with. Their buddies in the EPA, IRS will soon see you as their punching bag or, worse yet, their pocket book.
The US economy is transitioning from a semi-centralized, semi-free market approach to more of a guild approach where producers are disallowed from reducing prices or finding new improvements.
We might be 2 or 3 wave elections away from seeing any changes here.
Posting AC because I know I'm going to get modded into the ground for daring to defend Monsanto on /. (I had as well bad-mouth Linux and defend MS too). But here goes:
No one has to buy Monsanto seed. Farmers buy it because they want its advantages. As such, Monsanto, having spend a lot of R&D money to develop these crops, has every right to sell its seed and to stop people from illegally selling competing seed that benefits from their work without compensating them. Now, farmers will bitch and moan about this, because bitching and moaning are what farmers do best and because they're cheapskates who hate paying extra for anything. Seriously, I grew up working on farms, and you'll never find a bigger bunch of entitled cheapskate bastards than farmers--to the point of routinely committing criminal business practices (who do you think hires most of the illegals in the U.S., at criminal wages?). But at the end of the day no one is forcing them to buy Monsanto seed. If they want the benefits, they have to pay for them. Otherwise, grow your own fucking seed, you cheap bastards.
Just because farmers are cheapskates, and Monsanto is hated, doesn't make it okay to steal. Everyone deserves to be compensated for their work, even Monsanto.
This is a good place to discuss the seed banks around the world where the genetic diversity of endangered (and extinct) plants is protected. I'm not expert but perhaps you are.
Also, it seems that the opensourceseedinitiative site hasn't seen any activity for many months. Are they endangered too?
...omphaloskepsis often...
Patents last 20 years. All of todays seeds will eventually be public domain. Problem will solve itself by doing nothing.
Then give the consumers a choice to not buy GMO. Label products as GMO. No one is forced to buy doesn't apply, when that piece of information is not available.
Also they should stop patenting genes, which spread naturally into neighboring farms.
Then give the consumers a choice to not buy GMO. Label products as GMO.
Plenty of products are already labeled as NOT GMO. So people already have a choice.
Then give the consumers a choice to not buy GMO. Label products as GMO. No one is forced to buy doesn't apply, when that piece of information is not available.
Also they should stop patenting genes, which spread naturally into neighboring farms.
Companies are free to label as such.
Neither party has done sh*t to address this.
Nobody's asking them to... The voters said, *Carry on with what you are doing*. There is no incentive to change anything at all. Don't look to the 'party' for help..
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Then give the consumers a choice to not buy GMO. Label products as GMO.
Plenty of products are already labeled as NOT GMO. So people already have a choice.
Not plenty enough. I am in the US west coast in a fairly large city, with a whole foods and a choice of stores. I honestly dont find enough products labelled GMO free.
Then grow your own
No shit. There's a reason why plant materials are quarantined, and it isn't some big GMO conspiracy. That's the problem with you anti-GMO people; you're so certain of your position, but you never even heard of quarantines for agricultural pests and diseases. Was your friend certain that there was no spores or pest eggs hidden on those seeds, and how were the regulators to know? I hope you've got a good answer.
http://www.seedsavers.org/ "Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds. Since 1975, our members have been passing on our garden heritage by collecting and distributing thousands of samples of rare garden seeds to other gardeners. "
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
You're either lying or not looking very hard. They're everywhere; the Non-GMO Project has a large list of products they certify, and loads of stores carry a selection of organic products, which are also GMO free. Besides that, only a few crop species are genetically engineered, and this really is not hard information to find, so it really is a trivial task to figure out if an item meets your ritualistic impurity beliefs. Corn, soy, canola, cotton, sugar beet, alfalfa, summer squash, papaya. Those are the GE species. Congratulations, you can no longer claim your own ignorance as a justification for mandatory labels.
Point is, you have a choice, you've always had a choice, and if you choose to remain too ignorant to exercise that choice then that's your own damned fault, so what's this really about then?
What is a "source seed"? And how do you open them? (I guess they didn't know, that's why they "tried" to open them.)
This was probably intended as a snark but is actually a great option. Even apartment dwellers can guerrilla garden.
In my state organic certification doesnt require it to be GMO free. Plus organic certification only covers fresh produce, I eat a lot of stuff that is not fresh produce.
Nice try Mike Adams, we know it's you.
kurzweil_freak
5th Kyu Genbukan Ninpo/KJJR student
Be the darkness that allows the light to shine.
To my knowledge, organic certification is overseen by the USDA, and the certification process is handled by the local state agency but still under the USDA rules. Federal USDA organic certification requires products to not be genetically modified. Please correct me if I'm wrong, thanks.
kurzweil_freak
5th Kyu Genbukan Ninpo/KJJR student
Be the darkness that allows the light to shine.
Monsanto doesn't sell products to the general consumer population; they sell seeds to farmers. Their products are very clearly labeled as GMOs. If you want to slap labels on grocery store products, you need to come up with a valid reason to do so such as a difference in nutritional content or something else that actually matters. "I really, really want it!" is not a valid reason.
kurzweil_freak
5th Kyu Genbukan Ninpo/KJJR student
Be the darkness that allows the light to shine.