Speaker
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Anabel MarinResearch Fellow at IDSAnabel Marin is a Research Fellow and leads the Business, Markets and the State Cluster at IDS
Organizer
Global Coalition of Open Source Seed Initiatives – GOSSI
Website
http://seed-commons.netThe Global Coalition of Open Source Seed Initiatives (GOSSI) is an international network that envisions a world in which agricultural seeds are free to be used, saved, shared and bred by anyone. Members are developing or promoting open-source strategies to protect seeds as commons in a global context characterised by increasing intellectual property rights (such as patents and plant breeder rights) and other legal restrictions on seeds (such as certification, registration, etc.). The presenters are members of the GOSSI network and represent a variety of international open source seed and participatory breeding initiatives that share the objective of increasing the diversity of both cultivated seed and breeders.
Location
Website
https://www.tcd.ie/Maps/map.php?b=58&i=b16Getting inspiration from open-source seed ideas and practices
Main objective of the workshop
In this workshop we would like to explore with colleagues and friends working to liberate the seeds, using different approaches and strategies, how open-source seed ideas and practices from different initiatives within GOSSI could contribute to their work.
Open-source seeds are seeds, whose distribution and/or sale are accompanied by a formal commitment to preserve the rights of farmers, gardeners, and breeders to freely use, save, replant, and improve them. Critically, this responsibility is extended to their progeny and derivatives. Anyone may freely use open-source seed – grow it, propagate it, and breed with it – as long as they agree to pass those freedoms on to others. We use a formal licence or a pledge to establish the commitment between those that exchange seeds.
Short description of the workshop
In the workshop we will first briefly present the idea of open-source seeds, and the several ways in which it is being experimented with in different countries: Argentina, USA, Germany, Italy, India and Kenya. We will then invite participants to imagine how existing practices of open-source seeds could be used in their work.
The questions that we would like to explore are the following: can some of the practices we are experimenting with in GOSSI contribute to your work? In which ways? Which are the main challenges we see to apply them? Can we think of other ways in which the general principles of open-source seeds could work for you?
