I have been looking at some of the seed offerings coming out for 2019. I came across this listing, and it’s given me some thought. If you compare it for example to this:
I would assume both these varieties are what they are labelled. I don’t think either Ben or Andrew and Sarah have any reason to lie or misrepresent what they sell.
At the same time, there are lots of questions in my mind about these mixes. For example, lettuce will not normally cross when saving seeds unless hand pollinated. Ben specifically mentions his mix contains crosses. I do not see the exact variety name of the Real Seed Lettuce on the OSSI website, but see several similar ones. The description also mentions some varieties have been added, but by who is not completely clear. It is labelled as an OSSI variety, but is it possible some non-OSSI seeds have been mixed in and not crossed? This could mean the OSSI status is mixed, and some of the seed grown will be OSSI and some not. If I cared if this was an OSSI variety, this would be very important.
What about the mix from Adaptive? It’s not labelled as OSSI, nor is it listed on the OSSI website. Andrew and Sarah live a few hours drive from Frank Morton, and I’m pretty sure they all know each other. Is it possible some of the seeds from Frank’s OSSI lettuce have found their way into the Adaptive mix? If I was looking for non-OSSI seeds this would be really important to know.
If I wanted to buy either of these seeds, and I wanted OSSI or non-OSSI seeds, I could sort this out with an email or two. I’m sure both seed companies know where their seeds came from and could give me an answer one way or another.
What about 10-20 years from now? Suppose some of this lettuce, possibly with a different variety name, ended up in a completely different seed company? A DNA test could show where the seeds came from, but there probably wouldn’t be any other way. There’s also no guarantee there would be enough public DNA records to establish this conclusively.
OSSI seeds are threatening to contaminate seed collections all over the world in this way. This is just like Monsanto’s GMOs contaminating a neighboring farm, and the victim being sued by Monsanto for stealing their genes. The only difference is these genes are being spread by seed savers.
As much as I believe that both Adaptive and Real Seeds sell perfectly fine seeds, if I was trying to collect non-OSSI seeds, I would probably buy them somewhere else so there could be no confusion.
Lies and More Lies
Everything I’ve been able to establish about OSSI is that it’s a lie. I’ve written about this before, but it has nothing to do with open source software. Seeds are living things and not computer software, they just work differently and the laws governing them are different. It’s very unlikely Jack Kloppenburg just dreamed this up, or is doing it out of the goodness in his heart. There’s billions of dollars behind this in Europe and elsewhere, and everything is meticulously planned.
If some of you have been promised money, or think that profits are going into some sort of benefits fund or a not for profit organization, this is not very likely. I know very little about the organization behind the OSSI in Europe, but it isn’t driven by anyone in the seed movement here. It’s controlled by unknown people, and their intentions are not clear. Historically benefit sharing in relation to seeds has taken place in the form of a fund that loans money to farmers and is intended to itself make a profit. There have been other cases of farmers being paid a very small amount of money to breed a seed variety, that gets patented and the farmer themselves no longer has the right to grow that variety without purchasing seeds. It’s generally the intention to maintain the poverty of the person receiving the benefit. It’s very unlikely any meaningful amount of money will get paid out in any useful way. There’s certainly lots of money involved, but none of us are likely to see it.
It’s unlikely OSSI will be useful to protect against patents or other IPR. In theory it should not be possible to patent seeds in Europe, but it does sometimes still happen. In the US I don’t know of any legal mechanism to prevent seed patents with OSSI. The situation with patents in general is very messed up, both in Europe and worldwide. While there’s an urgent need for reform, it needs to include all seeds not just those protected by OSSI, and it needs to include many other sectors of the economy.
The only reason for OSSI is because outside of the US there is now full privatization of seeds, and there’s a rush to own the biological diversity in the US.
In the US all biological diversity is already in the commons. The OSSI is not necessary to establish this. There are exceptions to this however, according to some treaties: If the breeder makes known his or her wishes, like with the OSSI, ownership can be established outside of the US.
It can be deposited into a genebank and covered by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). When a material is requested from a genebank, the ownership of the material itself remains with the genebank and is not transferred to the requester. The US joined this treaty on 13 March 2018, so all material received from USDA genebanks after this date is owned by the genebank.
If you signed an SMTA when receiving the material, the genebank also retains ownership.
All other genetic material in the US is owned by the person owning the seeds!
It’s really a travesty that president Trump authorized the US joining the ITPGRFA.
If you have seeds that aren’t obtained directly, or are progeny from, seeds from a US genebank after 13 March 2018, and you haven’t signed an SMTA, and aren’t directly from an organization like the Seed Savers Exchange who has submitted their collection under the terms of the ITPGRFA, and are not OSSI or similar, you can probably sell ownership of them in other countries. Don’t give up this right without a good reason.
There are no labeling rules on seeds however, so it’s really important you get your seeds from a trusted source, and you know where they came from. There is a very real possibility of intentional contamination of public domain seeds in the US, and everyone should be on the lookout for that happening.
