ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 engages even more directly with the life sciences as an alternative space of representation for key concepts of the new bioepistemic reality. Firstly, the ‘global bio-economy’ is examined as a policy language and framework that is most powerfully advocating the life sciences as the drivers of a transition to major changes in society – that is, a transition to a world of sustainable societies. Invariably, its many goals rely on the ability to engineer malleable biomass into a sustainable and renewable source of energy, food, and materials (e.g., bio-plastics), all at the will of the designer. Crucially, however, such a vision of the future is not solely an extrapolation from the promises of synthetic biology as to the global targets that it is employed to contribute to reaching; the visionary work is increasingly a reflection of an alliance of chemical companies and synthetic biology start ups seeking to industrialise specific commodity chains that are to remain exclusive. It is within this setting that the chapter continues by comparing and contrasting ‘biohacking’ and ‘Open Source seeds’. The former is an effort to transform the life sciences by opening up the laboratory and making experimentation inclusive, while the latter approach represents seeking to remove the restrictions that are imposed on the usage of plants in agriculture, extending open licencing for seeds. Accordingly, the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) does not seek to justify the existing restrictions or to mediate them by sharing knowledge and exchanging information; rather, they actively strive to develop new strategies to roll back the commodification of seeds. While this is difficult to accomplish, OSSI demonstrates that a counter-economy is entirely practical in one of the most contested life sciences domains, suggesting that a similar approach might be applicable to living and working with genetic materials in other formats and bioeconomies.
