Page 63 - Breeding and regulatory opportunities, Renaud

Seed Regulation in the US

proposed that commercial buyers of organic products should also be subject

to the organic seed requirement. Buyers whose organisations were certiied as

organic handlers, therefore, should require their suppliers of certiied organic

raw materials to use organic seed when commercially available. If the varieties

were not available in organic form, the buyers should comply with the same

documentation requirements as those required of a grower. Moreover, buyers

who required their supplier to use a speciic variety (proprietary or otherwise)

should ensure that variety was available as ‘certiied organic’ or assist in its

production in organic form. However, in our study, the interviews with organic

food crop buyers (n= 5) revealed that they were reluctant to become co-

enforcers of the organic seed regulation because this role would impose an

additional administrative cost (Food buyer interviews, 2009). Their greatest

concern was that they could not readily access information about the range

of available organic seed varieties. The SOS survey found that in 2010, 28% of

grower respondents did not use organic seed because their buyers required

that, for product consistency reasons, they use a variety not available in organic

form (Dillon & Hubbard, 2011). In our study, it was noted during a presentation

on organic seed held at a national organic conference (Ecofarm, Paciic Grove,

CA, 2011), food buyers in the audience stated that they wanted to be better

informed about seed issues and availability (principal author’s meeting notes,

2011). In another instance recorded in our study, Organic Valley, a Midwest

US-based dairy cooperative, announced that its suppliers were expected by

2015 to prove use of organic seed for all feed crops, and to supply certiication

that no genetically modiied organisms (GMOs) had been detected (principal

author’s meeting notes, 2010). Organic Valley further announced it would

contribute inancially to the launch of an organic, conventional, non-GMO ield

crop seed-sourcing database in collaboration with the Association of Oicial

Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA) to support their suppliers in identifying

appropriate seed sources (ASTA Meeting, Huntington Beach, CA, 2011).

What is at stake for the formal seed sector?

The interviews with stakeholders in the formal seed sector (n=10) revealed

that they thought the organic seed rule enforcement could pose considerable

problems for the development of the organic seed sector. Their primary

contention was that the market was not prepared for enforcement because

there was an insuicient supply of organic seed. The NOSB recommendations

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