Page 240 - Breeding and regulatory opportunities, Renaud

Chapter 6

The origins of Model 4 have already evolved into more complex and expanding

breeding models where the individual seed producer/breeders described in

this model have evolved into commercial entities and/or partnered with

public breeding institutions to develop regional varieties. The Biodynamic

sector in Switzerland and Germany, for example, has created models for self-

organization of organic seed breeding and production companies (e.g. Sativa

and Bingenheimer Saatgut AG). In the US, participatory plant breeding models,

such as NOVIC (which is also described in Chapter 2) where public breeders

partner with farmers to develop public cultivars that are selected for site

speciicity and are open source. Comparable examples exist in Europe, e.g. the

collaboration between breeding researchers of the French national agriculture

research institute (INRA) in developing participatory approaches in regional

caulilower and broccoli breeding (Chable et al., 2008). The organic sector in

the US could also look at adapting models that have been described for several

crops in marginal agricultural regions in non-industrialized countries where

breeders and farmers work more collaboratively in trait identiication, selection

and adoption to enhance the eiciency and relevancy of seed improvement

(e.g. Manu-Aduening et al., 2006; Li et al., 2012; Reguieg et al., 2013). Potentially

other models could exist, for example exchange of genetic material from

company Model 2 with either Model 3 or 4 to conduct more regional screening

and adaptation determination as well as more targeted commercialization of

regionally selected varieties with organic growers in minor regions.

6.3.6 Outlook

The sustainability of current seed production for the major food crops on which

global food security currently depends, is increasingly a matter of practical,

professional and policy discussion. The work reported in this thesis indicates

that the experience of the organic seed sector is relevant to these debates in

important ways. In particular, conventional seed companies in the future may

see advantage of having an organic division that might prove mutually inspiring

and proitable, and traits of high priority for organic agriculture on the short-

term might be of beneit to conventional agriculture in the long run as they

strive to develop cultivars with characteristics that contribute to sustainable

production systems.

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