Bioleft open seeds transference. Photo: Ana María García.

From digital commons to nurturing social relationships: How to practice open source ideas with seeds?

What happens when you try to transfer open source ideas beyond the digital world? In Argentina we organized a workshop on open hardware and immediately afterward an event on open seeds. Some of the difficulties involved in transferring open source ideas from virtual to more material settings, and from communities of practitioners comfortable with networked, digital culture, to those that are less so, were readily apparent.

Ubuntu plant

Ubuntu, collective seed: Bioleft project on the press

Two articles about Bioleft project and the first Bioleft seed, Ubuntu, were published last month on specialized n
n the press Bioleft project and

Ubuntu seeds transference - Bioleft

Argentina’s ‘Bioleft’ project shares its first open source seeds

Seeds were transferred from researchers to farmers for the first time under a new kind of open source transfer contract, called Bioleft, .

From common good to corporate ownership: The new strategy to modify the Seed Law

De bien común a propiedad corporativa: La nueva estrategia para modificar la Ley de Semillas By Maxi Goldschmidt Abstract This article reflects on the debate around the reform of Argentina’s Seed…

Open Source Seeds

Semillas con código abierto By Juan Manuel Repetto Abstract Currently, the seed industry has a high level of concentration and only three business groups control more than half of the…

T-Lab in Buenos Aires: Bioleft, open source seeds

T-Lab in Buenos Aires: Bioleft, co-designing open source seeds

The Latin America Hub of Pathways to Sustainabilty project is working on a system to protect biological information and ensure its circulation for research and development.

Chinese engagement in African agriculture is not what it seems

In December 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping flew into South Africa for the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation with great fanfare. There were lots of announcements about prospective investments across Africa….

Are China and Brazil transforming African agriculture?

A new Open Access Special Issue in World Development based on our work on the changing role of China and Brazil in Africa’s agriculture is now available (links to individual…

Contested Agronomy: Four big questions to debate

We have just finished a fantastic conference co-hosted by the STEPS Centre on ‘Contested Agronomy’ with 80 participants and a vibrant discussion. I was asked to give some comments at…