Seed E-News

July 30, 2004

USDA Grants Protection to 31 New Plant Varieties
In Washington, DC, on July 26, 2004, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued certificates of protection to developers of 16 new varieties of seed-reproduced and tuber-propagated plants. They include bluegrass, corn, fescue and ryegrass. The 16 certificates are issued under the Plant Variety Protection Act. The certificates require that the varieties be new, distinct, uniform and stable. The owners will have the exclusive right to reproduce, sell, import and export their products in the United States for the duration of protection. The 16 certificates are:

• the Freedom II variety of Kentucky bluegrass, developed by J.R. Simplot Company, Post Falls, ID;
• the PH6CF, PH70R, PH76T, PH7AB, PH7BW, PH876, PH8KG, PH8PG, PH91C, PH6MN, PH51K, PH705, and PH890 varieties of corn, developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Johnston, IA;
• the Scaldis II variety of hard fescue, developed by Advanta USA, Inc., Albany, OR; and
• the Phantom variety of perennial ryegrass, developed by ProSeeds Marketing, Inc., Lebanon, OR.

In Washington, DC, on July 27, 2004, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued certificates of protection to developers of 15 new varieties of seed-reproduced and tuber-propagated plants. They include corn and cotton. The 15 certificates are issued under the Plant Variety Protection Act. The certificates require that the varieties be new, distinct, uniform and stable. The owners will have the exclusive right to reproduce, sell, import and export their products in the United States for the duration of protection. The 15 certificates are:

• the PH6WA, PH8DB, PH94T, PH951, PH9AH, PHAPV and PHB6V varieties of field corn, developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Johnston, IA;
• the AP 9257, ST 3539BR, ST 4563B2 and ST 5303R varieties of cotton, developed by Emergent Genetics, Inc., Memphis, TN.; and
• the DP 424 BGII/RR, DP 468 BII/RR, DP 494 RR, and DP 488 BG/RR varieties of cotton, developed by D&PL Technology Holding Company, LLC., Scott, MS.

USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service administers the Plant Variety Protection Act, which provides time limited marketing protection to developers of new and distinct seed- reproduced and tuber-propagated plants ranging from farm crops to flowers. For additional information contact the Plant Variety Protection Office at telephone (301) 504-5518, fax (301) 504-5291 or the Internet at www.ams.usda.gov/science/PVPO/pvpindex.htm.

U.S. National Academies Report: Assess Altered Food Products on Composition not Method
A new report from the National Academiesā National Research Council and Institute of Medicine argues that federal agencies should assess the safety of genetically altered foods ö whether produced by genetic engineering or by other techniques, such as conventional breeding for desirable traits — on a case-by-case basis to determine whether unintended changes in their composition could adversely affect human health. The scope of each safety evaluation should not be based solely on the technique used to alter the food, said the committee that wrote the report, because even traditional methods such as cross-breeding can cause unexpected changes. Instead, greater scrutiny should be given to foods containing new compounds or unusual amounts of naturally occurring substances, regardless of the method used to create them. The full report can be purchased from The National Academies Press or the Report in Brief can be accessed here.

Statement of the Institute of Food Science & Technology on GM Technology
The United Kingdomās Institute of Food Science & Technology issued an Information Statement on July 27 July 2004 recognizing that Genetic Modification has the potential to offer very significant improvements in the quantity, quality and acceptability of the world's food supply. To read the statement, follow this link IFST. IFST was founded in 1964 and, although based in the UK, has members throughout the world.

Argentina Approves Use of GM Corn
The Argentinean government has approved planting of Monsanto's NK603 corn. To read more, follow this link Argentina.

European Farmers' Associations Call for "Clean Seed"
Two dozen European farmers associations and the federations Coordination Paysanne Européene and IFOAM with their affiliated organic associations have written to European Commission President Prodi and Commissioners Fischler (Agriculture) and Wallström (Environment) on threshold limits for GMO content in non-GM seed arguing that thresholds should be set at the "lowest possible and technically reliable level of detection". To read the letter, follow this link IFOAM Letter.

APHIS Workshop on "Confinement of Genetically Engineered Crops During Field Testing"
USDA-APHIS BRS is planning a workshop, to be held September 13-15, 2004 at their Riverdale, MD Headquarters, to focus on confinement issues relative to PMP and PMIPs in corn, barley, rice, safflower, tobacco, as well as cotton. Mark Condon of the ASTA staff has agreed to serve on the workshop Steering Committee which will provide opinions on the organization of the Workshop as well as potential speakers, questions for discussion and references for a bibliography etc. The five main topics to be covered by the workshop are:

• Introduction to confinement and the principle of redundancy presented by APHIS
• Setting of isolation standards by AOSCA, scale and quality control measures (monitoring)
• Confinement analysis critical control points (CACCP) and quality control/monitoring
• Modeling tools
• Monitoring and sampling strategies to verify confinement (e.g., volunteers and geneflow)

To ensure that the seed industry has optimal participation in the workshop, ASTA members are encouraged to provide as soon as possible to Mark Condon at mcondon@amseed.org any recommendations for speakers, references, moderators, note takers, etc. More detailed information on this workshop will be provided to the ASTA membership in the coming months.

Indiana Seed Trade Association 2004 Corn Belt Seed Conference Indiana Seed Trade Association will be holding its 2004 Corn Belt Seed Conference on November 11-12, 2004 at the Marriott East. Indianapolis. For more information, check out the ISTA web site at www.indianaseed.com or download this PDF.

Industry and People

If you have any personnel changes, or other developments in your company, that you would like included in E-News, please send details to ppatterson@amseed.org.

Upcoming Events

November 7-8, 2004
ASTA 50th Farm & Lawn Seed Conference
Westin Crown Center
Kansas City, MO

December 8-10, 2004
ASTA 34th Soybean & 59th Corn & Sorghum Conferences and Seed Expo 2004
Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chicago, IL
Tel: 1-888.890.7333

January 22-25, 2005
ASTA 44th Vegetable & Flower Conference
Grand Hyatt San Francisco
San Francisco, CA.

June 19-22, 2005
122nd ASTA Annual Convention
Sheraton Seattle Hotel and Tower
Seattle, WA

July 7-14, 2006
Joint ASTA-CSTA Annual Convention
Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chicago, IL