Page 20 - Breeding and regulatory opportunities, Renaud

Chapter 1

1.1 Introduction

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

and breeding sector, taking broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) in the USA as the

model case. In this chapter the theme is introduced and background information

is provided. The problem addressed by this thesis is introduced, and the research

objectives, hypotheses and main research questions are presented, followed by

the research design and methodology, and the outline of this thesis.

Organic farm practices often difer substantially from conventional practices

in refraining from chemical-synthetic inputs such as fungicides, pesticides and

mineral fertilisers) but also in the diversity of their crop rotations, number of

crops, production area, and market outlets (Kristiansen et al., 2006). Organic

farming systems are based on organically-derived inputs such as compost

and animal manure and focus their management on stimulating long-term

biological self-regulatory processes to achieve resilience for stable productivity.

However, organic farmers have fewer options to intervene in the short-term

when weather or soil conditions are not favourable for optimal crop growth

(Mäder et al., 2002; Messmer et al., 2012). Therefore organic growers require

cultivars with stable performance across variable growing conditions over years.

Currently, organic farmers depend largely on cultivars bred for high external

input conventional farming systems (Lammerts van Bueren et al., 2002). One

of the challenges for the organic agricultural sector is to comply with the

principles of organic agriculture concerning health, ecology, fairness and care,

see Table 1.1, as formulated by the world umbrella organization for the organic

sector the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM,

2012; Luttikholt, 2007). It includes that all farm inputs should be produced

organically. Use of organic seed as a required farm input is a component in the

overall organic certiication process. Recent developments in the interpretation

of organic seed regulation have created tensions between farmers and seed

companies as to how to provide a suiciently diverse assortment of cultivars

suited for organic agriculture and meet the requirements (USDA AMS, 2002;

Dillon and Hubbard, 2011).

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