New York, NY - In a much anticipated development, the critically acclaimed documentary film 'Open Sesame- The Story of Seeds' has today been made universally available to public audiences worldwide via online steaming. The film, which depicts the importance of organics and the enormous effort to protect organic seed, by New York-based filmmaker Sean Kaminsky is also available for DVD purchase online.

From Open Pollinated Productions, 'Open Sesame' is a groundbreaking film with a mission to raise awareness about the issues affecting seed on a global scale and how these issues, in turn, impact our food supply. It poignantly argues that seed is the basis not only of agriculture, but also of life on this planet as we know it: Without seed, nothing else would exist. 

Stakeholders interviewed in the documentary include organic seed farmers, seed company representatives, activists, and educators. Through the lens of real people dealing with seed issues on the ground, the audience is introduced to issues amounting to a global crisis. Seed consolidation and extinction, corporate control of the seed industry, GE contamination of seeds, and loss of farmers' rights are all featured.

'Open Sesame' also includes extensive coverage of the landmark organic community lawsuit, OSGATA et al. v. Monsanto. The historic lawsuit was filed in 2011 on behalf of 83 individual American and Canadian family farmers, independent seed companies and agricultural organizations whose combined memberships total over one million citizens, including many non-GE farmers and over 25% of North America's certified organic farmers. 

Plaintiff-farmers had sought Court protection under the Declaratory Judgment Act that should they become the innocent victims of contamination by Monsanto's patented gene-splice technology they could not be sued for patent infringement. 

The Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) is the national membership trade organization of the organic seed community. Its mission is to develop, protect, and promote the organic seed trade and its producers.

OSGATA Member and former OSGATA President, Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seed, OR.

As depicted in the film, OSGATA farmer-member Frank Morton of Oregon-based Wild Garden Seed summarizes, "The biggest threat to food security is when we can't produce our own damn seeds!"

Ultimately, American farmers were handed a partial victory in the OSGATA et al. v. Monsanto lawsuit. The three-justice presiding over the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., issued a complicated ruling in June 2013. In that ruling, the justices ordered Monsanto not to sue American farmers whose fields were contaminated with trace amounts of patented material, which the Court defined as 1%.

For more information about 'Open Sesame', please visit www.opensesamemovie.com.