Page 14 - Breeding and regulatory opportunities, Renaud

Abstract

This thesis is about the regulatory and technical challenges to the organic seed

and breeding sector. This study speciically explored the mutual inluence of

the regulatory environment for organic seed sector development in the United

States (US), Europe Union (EU) and Mexico, and the extent to which broccoli

(Brassica oleracea var. italica) cultivars performed diferently under organic

conditions compared to conventional conditions, measured by selected

horticultural and phytochemical traits. Currently, organic farmers depend

largely on cultivars bred for conventional farming systems. However, organic

farming practices often difer substantially from conventional practices by

refraining from using chemical inputs. We investigated the requirements of

organic growers for seed that allowed optimization of their production system,

and fulilled consumer expectations for high nutritional value. In addition,

we discuss the implications for seed production and crop improvement. The

ield research was based on stakeholder interviews, participant observation,

documentary analyses, laboratory analyses and paired ield trials (organic/

conventional) conducted in two contrasting regions, Maine and Oregon in the

US, over two seasons (spring, fall) and two years for a total of 16 trials with

23 cultivars. The main indings of the regulatory component were: (1) New

organizations, procedural arrangements and activities have emerged in the

US, EU and Mexico to support organic seed regulatory development, with both

positive and negative results; (2) Oicial guidance on the interpretation of the

regulation in the US has not been suiciently decisive to prevent divergent

interpretation and practice, and in consequence the needs of a rapidly growing

economic sector are not being met; and (3) Growth of the organic seed sector

is hindered by regulatory imbalances and trade incompatibilities within and

between global markets. For the ield studies the main indings were: (1) In the

partitioning of variance, location and season had the largest efect on broccoli

head weight. For glucoraphanin and lutein, genotype was the major source of

total variation; for glucobrassicin, region and the interaction of location and

season; and for neoglucobrassicin, both genotype and its interactions with

season were important. For δ- and γ- tocopherols, season played the largest role

in the total variation followed by location and genotype; for total carotenoids,

genotype (G) was the largest source of variation and its interactions with

location and season. For both horticultural and phytochemical concentrations,

v