Seed-to-Table: Q&A with Jack Kloppenburg

With modern-day patenting came the ability to turn seeds, once belonging to all of humankind, into individual property. Jack Kloppenburg and plant breeders around the world are fighting to reclaim the seed and restore it to its natural state: free.

Hannah Wente: Why was the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) founded?

Jack Kloppenburg: It is a response to a key change in plant breeding over the last 50 years. Decisions about what our crops look and taste like are being made by fewer people in fewer companies. Four companies own the intellectual properties of most plant varieties, corn and soybean, even lettuces—and people don’t know it. Fewer companies translates to fewer varieties on the market.

As we enter the new world of climate change, crops are going to need to be responsive to new rainfall, diseases and pests. We’ll need more breeders and diverse varieties.

Inspired by the free and open source software movement, OSSI was created to free the seed—breeders pledge that the genes in at least some seeds can never be locked away from use by intellectual property rights. The OSSI logo means this is a variety from freed seed, that it’s available for anyone to use further. You can plant the seeds in your garden. We should be able to find these varieties at farmers’ markets.

HW: How did you get involved with seeds?

JK: I was working for UW–Madison and thought plant breeding only occurred at businesses and land-grant universities.

I discovered there is this community of plant breeders. Today, we have 48 freelance breeders and over 500 varieties under the OSSI pledge. These are sustainable varieties, bred locally for local conditions. There’s a good deal of interest in farm-to-table, but what about seed-totable? It’s a portal into the larger issues.

HW: What can individuals do to support this work?

JK: People think of themselves as foodies and go to farmers’ markets. They may notice different varieties of tomatoes and peppers, but they may not know how many different flavors, sizes, colors and textures are available. We should all dig deeper. The most important thing you can do is vote. We talk about patents and intellectual property rights and regulations—those are up to local, state and federal governments.

Join an organization that brings your voice together with other people and works to make the changes people can vote for.

Know your plant breeder. Buy opensource seeds and foods, like tomatoes from the Dwarf Tomato Project. Visit www.dwarftomatoproject.net.

Did you know? Four companies control over 60% of global seed sales: Bayer (Monsanto), Corteva (Dow/DuPont), Chemchina (Syngenta) and BASF (formerly Monsanto). (Philip Howard, Michigan State University, 2018)

OSSI’s deployment of open-source seeds in the U.S. is facilitated by the fact that the U.S. places virtually no restrictions on breeding and subsequent sale of seed. In contrast, breeders and seed sellers in the European Union labor under the extremely restrictive regulations of the Common Catalog. These regulations forbid selling most seed that is not listed in the Catalog, and the requirements for listing are such that farmers, gardeners and small seed companies find it difficult to breed and sell their own varieties.

ABOUT PLANT BREEDERS:

Participatory Plant Breeding: The active collaboration between researchers, farmers and other actors throughout the breeding process. (Cambridge University Press, 2021)

Freelance Breeder: A grower who's not connected to any particular company or university. Just like home cooks trying out new recipes, freelance breeders breed plants for different characteristics for themselves. Basically, they have little to no financial incentive—they're seeking to