The OSSI Initiative
The Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) – established in 2012 by a group of plant breeders, farmers, and advocates – wants to maintain fair and open access to plant genetic resources worldwide, to underpin a diversified and decentralized seed industry, essential to a sustainable food system.
There is no way to create a workable formal license system. OSSI has created a Pledge to establish an ethical commitment to keep seed free now and into the future.
OSSI engages in education and outreach, and coordinates a network of plant breeders and partner that register their varieties as open source and release them as such.
Read more about the Open Source Seed Initiative on their website and on the University of Wisconsin-Madison “The Why? Files“.
OSSI and The Guild of Oca Breeders
The Guild of Oca Breeders is registered as an OSSI Plant Breeder, which means the oca varieties we are studying and distributing to our members are subject to the OSSI pledge:
You have the freedom to use these OSSI-Pledged seeds in any way you choose. In return, you pledge not to restrict others’ use of these seeds or their derivatives by patents, licenses or other means, and to include this pledge with any transfer of these seeds or their derivatives.
This means all our members are subject to the pledge, and have to keep the material they receive as open access. That implies that any material they decide to redistribute has to carry the pledge with it.