In the past few weeks I’ve had some more thoughts about OSSI. What I wrote about OSSI before was pretty stark, and I want to offer some ideas for the way forward for everyone. No one has to read this blog, and no one has to do what it says. I’m just trying to lay out the situation as I see it, so please do what you want with the information.
CBD and ITPGRFA
These two treaties, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) are causing a lot of problems now, especially as provisions of the CBD and associated Nagoya Protocol are coming into force. The inherent greed of these treaties are causing problems for almost everyone. If you’re in the US you’re in a special situation because the US is not a party of the CBD and Nagoya Protocol, meaning your seeds are very sought after.
The problems with the US Seed Savers Exchange were in part because the US was not a party to the ITPGRFA (the US is now a party to this treaty). The ITPGRFA basically allows seeds to be stolen without the owners permission. Because the US wasn’t a party to this treaty, it wasn’t as simple as just becoming an SSE member and requesting all the seeds, they either needed the permission of all the individual members or they needed permission of the management. Kent Whealy refused to give this permission, so he was pushed out of the way. He didn’t fully understand what was happening at the time, but was trying to explain it the best he could.
The CBD establishes rights of ownership over seeds. It is the privatization of biodiversity. If you live outside the US and buy a package of seeds you only have the right to plant and grow those seeds, not the right to save seeds or use the plants in breeding projects. The situation is very different if someone who owns the seeds ‘gives’ them to you. For this reason it’s now almost a requirement to transfer seeds with a contract, either attached to the package of seeds or buried in the terms and conditions of sale.
Exclusive ‘ownership’ of seeds is a valuable commodity, also in the US.
I’m not a lawyer, and the contents of these treaties are very complicated. The largest private collections of seeds are owned by Kokopelli and Arche Noah in Europe, and they have lawyers busy working out all the consequences of the treaties on their collections. I would guess over time these organizations and others will come up with some solutions. In addition, I’m sure there will be court cases and other reinterpretations of the treaties, and the situation will change. There is certainly a big fight ahead of us.
What Can you Do?
I hope very much these treaties will fail, and I believe they will eventually. The issue is more how to manage the fallout and damage and, in the meantime, continue to work on saving biodiversity.
The cohesion of organizations supporting seed saving efforts is critical, and in many ways it’s hard to imagine the absence of this, but I think these days are gone. Every organization of more than a few people will just be target for infiltration. Every collection of seeds will be impossible to protect without the efforts of a dedicated lawyer. I think it’s important to go back to the days of seed lists informally traded between friends, and in the US possibly seed companies offering their seeds over the Internet. We probably have to explore the need for seed companies to have terms and conditions for their seeds, I don’t have a good answer for this now.
Written contracts, terms of use, SMTAs and pledges are all extremely important. It’s very important you not sign anything, or otherwise accept any restrictions on any seeds you receive or give. The OSSI seed pledge seemed innocent enough at the beginning, but turned out to be a problem. It’s very important you don’t offer your seeds in any sort of exclusive manner. If seeds do have restrictions or contracts, it’s important to keep track of these. If there are future court cases, it’s important to know exactly how seeds have changed hands and what terms and conditions apply. DNA analysis can easily establish pedigree, and can be compared to other seeds. You aren’t doing anyone any favors for example by just ignoring the fact that seeds are OSSI or if you signed an SMTA, because this can be established with a DNA test.
Outside of the US, not keeping track of these contracts or the ownership of seeds is punishable on the level of the War on Drugs. The CBD simply says the level of punishment should be sufficient to ensure compliance, limited only by your national constitution. You have to wonder if their intention was to promote biodiversity or make profits.
Don’t willingly submit your seeds for DNA testing. The fact is they will do this anyway, and there’s not much you can do. I know of several examples in Europe where seeds are stolen for DNA analysis. This usually results in the people or organizations involved paying the same price the Seed Savers Exchange did.
Avoid the resources of genebanks, and don’t pay more for biodiversity. Already problems are occurring because people are not accepting SMTAs, and royalties are not being paid for the use of seeds. Even requesting genebank resources as an individual contributes to this, because they are counting on you to use their seeds and pass them on to others without the knowledge that an SMTA was signed. If not enough royalties are paid, the CBD and Svalbard will collapse.
Keep any seeds you have, and keep doing what you’re doing. Being able to fight what’s going on depends on the information about seeds, and what sort of contracts have been signed, not the seeds themselves. There are no bad seeds! Hopefully we can fight these changes, and fully legalize all seeds again. The best tactic for now is non-cooperation with authorities.
Be wary of Sociologists and Social Scientists. Of course there are all kinds of people and not all of them are bad, but be particularly concerned if they ask you to give them all of your seeds. There has been a lot of research in the last few decades concerning farmers and seed savers, and they know exactly how you think and what you expect.
Some Conclusions
If you gave your seeds to OSSI and they have been registered and DNA sequenced, they have been stolen. You can possibly rectify the situation a bit by doing another final selection if you have some earlier generations. If there is not an exact DNA match, you can release a new version of your variety to replace the old one. In any case we should accept the situation and move on.
Certified Organic is not going to be a solution to global warming, and it’s not going to be the small, community or family farmer regenerative agriculture we need. If your income or livelihood depends on certification, great go ahead, but you aren’t doing anyone any favors by otherwise promoting or participating with it. Organizations like the Organic Seed Alliance and LIVESEED have some great people, but many of the fundamental principles behind them are flawed. Work with the people, not the organizations.
At it’s peak Europe had about 50 seed saving organizations. There are a couple of bad apples, but in general these all have great and dedicated people. Kokopelli and Arche Noah are the largest, and both deserve your support. If you live in the US, you can really help out by sharing your seeds with them on a non-exclusive basis, both the organizations and members. Be sure to communicate with them any SMTAs, contracts or terms and conditions you are aware of.
I would be happy to facilitate a European organization that allowed seed savers in the US to try to market their seeds in Europe on an exclusive basis. Along the lines of what OSSI was planning to do, but instead of being owned and controlled by the seed industry, and based on lies and fake news, one that was controlled and worked for the seed savers themselves, based on honesty and voluntary contributions. If anyone is interested, get in touch. In the meantime, you could look at Kokopelli and Arche Noah, and consider anything they might organize. Anything like this is going to be problematic to say the least, but I would be happy to give advice and my opinions on it.
