Page 35 - Breeding and regulatory opportunities, Renaud

General introduction

own domestic organic legislation and regulation practices may beneit from the

experiences of its trading partners. The approach to this part of the study was

designed to allow detailed process tracking and within-case analysis. The case

material was collected from mid-2007 through 2013. In each case, interviews

were conducted with individuals to explore stakeholders’ perceptions of the

draft organic seed regulation, their respective role in the process, and their

perceptions of opportunities for or constraints to regulatory development. The

respondents who were identiied through similar procedures as those outlined

above for the US study. In all three jurisdictions, the respondents were asked

to provide their perspectives on their respective organic seed regulations and,

in the case of Mexico, also on the organic seed regulations in the countries to

which they export organic product. The purpose was to reveal and compare

the unfolding processes and interests that are shaping the emergent regulatory

outcomes in each case throughout the study period. Relevant (grey) literature,

expert reports and policy documents were reviewed for all three jurisdictions.

Participant observation was carried out, in varying roles as researcher and

stakeholder, at key organic seed meetings held in the US, the EU and Mexico

throughout the study period.

1.5.2 Determining how currently available broccoli cultivars perform in

organic production systems compared to conventional growing

conditions with respect to horticultural and phytochemical traits

To answer RQ2, 23 broccoli cultivars including open pollinated (OP) cultivars,

inbred lines, and Fhybrids were included in the ield trials. These cultivars were
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selected to encompass the varietal diversity used by organic and conventional

growers in the targeted trial regions as well as to represent diverse genotypes

and phenotypes that difered in their year of commercial introduction and the

commercial seed company of origin. The cultivars were grown in paired organic

and conventional ields at two US locations (Maine and Oregon) in fall and spring

of the 2006-07 and 2007-08 growing seasons. Field quality traits were evaluated

including head shape, head surface, head colour, bead size, bead uniformity,

plant height and an overall plot quality rating based on overall appearance,

head quality and uniformity of the entire plot. After harvest, ive broccoli heads

were evaluated for head weight and head diameter. Hollow stem and days to

maturity were also evaluated. The genotype by environment by management

system trial analysis included a total of 16 trials.

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