Bridging traditional and new commons: The case of fruit breeding

Hendrik Wolter,Stefanie Sievers-Glotzbach

doi:10.18352/ijc.869

Hendrik Wolter, Stefanie Sievers-Glotzbach

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.18352/ijc.869

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Abstract

The recent system of fruit breeding and fruit cultivation faces a range of sustainability challenges, specifically an intense usage of plant protection measures, an increased privatization of former common goods, and an overall loss of resilience in the face of environmental change. We argue that a commons-based organization of fruit breeding could potentially meet these challenges. By (1) drawing on theoretical conceptions of Traditional Commons, Knowledge Commons and Global Commons, and (2) conducting an in-depth case study of a commons-based organic fruit breeding project in Germany, we develop a comprehensive picture of commons-based fruit breeding. Our analysis shows that ‘fruit breeding commons’ are a form of ‘hybrid commons’ and involve two interacting layers of commons organization: The inner layer encompasses the norms, rules and institutions governing the variety breeding process itself within a clearly defined decentralized breeding community. The outer layer encompasses the usage and protection rules regarding the resulting fruit varieties and knowledge about its characteristics referring to a more open community.

Highlights

By (1) describing the specific collective action challenges for designing governance arrangements in the context of fruit breeding, and (2) conducting a case study of a commonsbased organic apple breeding project in Germany, we develop a comprehensive picture of commons-based fruit breeding and its potential to meet core governance challenges in this sector
Our analysis shows that ‘fruit breeding commons’ are a form of ‘Hybrid Commons’: They bridge Traditional Commons and New Commons (Knowledge Commons and Global Natural Resource Commons) and involve two interacting layers of commons organization
The empirical findings further reveal that fruit breeding commons can resolve the public-good dilemma including the under-provision of innovations in breeding and agrobiodiversity

Summary

Introduction

Because industrialized agriculture has high standards on varieties for large-scale cultivation (e.g. in terms of uniformity, stability, and yield), costs of breeding activities increased and private property regimes for varieties emerged to give further incentives for plant breeding As a result, the former common goods of seeds and varieties experienced a transformation into private goods (Kloppenburg 2008; Halewood et al 2013). The cultivation of few, genetically similar varieties, partly resulting from the outlined economization and privatization processes, has led to a “genetic erosion” (van de Wouw et al 2010) and to the continuing loss of biodiversity – threatening the resilience of agricultural systems (Urruty et al 2016; Tendall et al 2015) Overall, these general developments influence fruit breeding as a distinct section of plant breeding, which is the topic of this paper

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