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OHM2013 Underway…

Today is the first day of OHM2013 in the Netherlands.  Tomorrow (Thursday) I will talk about Open Source Food in Tent 1 at 6pm local time here in Amsterdam, for an hour.  It might be possible to watch via a live stream here, or archived videos will be available later.

The general program is here.  All events are in English.  Lots of great stuff is planned!

At the last event, 4 years ago, Julian Assange spoke and introduced an idea he had called Wikileaks.  He’ll speak again this year via a video link from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he’s hiding out.  Thomas Drake, another American whistle blower will also speak.  Expect speakers this time to again present world changing ideas!

The event has it’s own broadcasting license for both TV and radio.  The station name is OHMroep, a play on the Dutch word ‘omroep’ which means broadcasting company.  See the streams page linked to above if you want to listen in.

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OHM2013

This year in the Netherlands will be a technical conference of sorts, called OHM2013. I will attend in order to give a presentation entitled Open Source Food.  3000 tickets are up for sale at €180 each, for a 4 day event.  In that time a piece of agricultural land in a remote place in the Netherlands will be transformed into a city powered by diesel generators.  Each of those lucky 3000 ticket holders will have purchased the right to be volunteers, and will help set up tents and stages, provide ‘content’ like presentations, cook food and so on.  Space for camping will be provided.

The event has it’s roots with a group of computer hackers and a Dutch language magazine published in the 1980s and 90s called Hacktic.  The event has become an ‘every 4th year’ tradition, started with the Galactic Hacker Party in 1989.  It has evolved in recent years to include free thinkers in almost every field.  One of the most striking thing about this event is the level of intelligence many of the participants have.  It’s truly a place to go to talk with intelligent people, with expertise you never thought existed.

I was at the first event in 1989, and some of the ones that followed years later.  I have not been in 12 years now, so it’ll be interesting to see how it’s changed.  I’m told that together with the other presentations, my presentation will be streamed live on the Internet and available for viewing afterwords.  I’ll post more information as I have it.

Update 17 July:  The program is now online.

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EU Seed Law: Open Letter EU Seed Organizations

To coincide with a EU Commission conference in Brussels, with the EU Parliament and EU Council, to explain the package “smarter rules for safer food”, most of Europe’s largest seed organizations have come together to sign a joint statement opposing many important aspects of this legislation package, as it relates to Plant Reproductive Material.

Signatories of this JOINT STATEMENT:

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Introducing: Seedsavers NL

logo Seedsavers

We’re currently a group of 4 and looking to expand.  We’re located in Amsterdam, Wageningen and north Belgium.  We haven’t formed a legal entity yet, so we can’t collect money, but if you leave behind an email address on our webpage, we’ll contact you with more information.  The annual fee will initially be €25.

Our official language will be English, although we may have some translations into Dutch, French, German or other languages, depending on members needs and interests.  We are primarily a Dutch and maybe Belgian organization, but if you live elsewhere and are interested in joining, let us know.

Our minimum goal is to provide a meeting somewhere in the Netherlands or Belgium once per year, as well as compile and circulate a trading list.  Beyond that, we plan to fund and otherwise support member driven initiatives.  We hope to organize things like field trips, workshops, visits to other seed saving organizations and so on.  The intention is to not only trade seeds, but to meet and get to know one another.

There’s lots of work to do!  If you’d like to help with graphics or webpage design, event organizing, planning, legal documents, translations, coordinating or anything else, please let us know.  We’re looking for board members, as well as advisers to the board.