Open Source Seeds and the Revitalization of Local Knowledge

Abstract

This article engages with the resistance against the global erosion of seed diversity followingthe modernization and industrialization of agriculture over the 20th century. This resistance spansfrom local farming communities that preserve and safeguard traditional landraces to internationalmovements which oppose proprietary seed regulations and promote free sharing of seeds. The articlefocuses on the latter and presents a study of the open source seed movement: an initiative to applystrategies from the open source software movement to ensure the free circulation of seeds. The erosionof seed diversity can be seen not only as a loss of genetic diversity but also a memory loss wheretraditional, collective knowledge about how to grow certain landraces is forgotten. Consequently, theopen source seed movement is not only about saving seeds but also about preserving and revitalizinglocal and traditional ecological knowledge against privatization and enclosure through intellectualproperty rights. The aim of this article is, thus, to analyze the open source seed movement as an actof revitalization in relation to intellectual property rights and in the context of information politics.