Seed E-News

August 20, 2004

Public Seed Initiative Workshops
A series of workshops aimed at small-scale growers in the northeastern United States are being run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) over the next three months. The first workshop was held on August 14 but others are planned for September, October and November:

• Sept. 8 at the Green Thumb in Water Mill, N.Y.;
• Sept. 14 at PGRU in Geneva;
• Sept. 24 and 25 at the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity, Maine;
• Oct. 7 at Lockwood Farm in Hamden, Conn.;
• Oct. 22 at Peacework Organic Farm in Newark, N.Y.; and
• Nov. 8 at Gorzynski's Ornery Farm in Cochecton Center, N.Y.

The Public Seed Initiative is an on-farm breeding and seed-production project involving the ARS Plant Genetic Resources Unit (PGRU) in Geneva, N.Y.; Cornell University's departments of plant breeding and horticulture; the Cooperative Genome Project of the nonprofit organization Oregon Tilth; and the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) of New York. For more information and to register on-line, check out http://www.plbr.cornell.edu/psi/calendar.html.

Soybean Rust North of Equator
The American Soybean Association (ASA) has been alerted to a confirmed case of Asian soybean rust about five degrees north of the equator in South America. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed a report of soybean rust being identified north of Cali, Colombia. Follow this link to read more Soybean Rust.

Researchers Identify Gene with Resistance to Soybean Aphids
Farmers across the Midwest could soon have high-yielding commercial varieties with effective resistance to soybean aphids as the result of a major breakthrough at the University of Illinois. After nearly three years of effort, a team of researchers at the U of I has identified a single-gene source of aphid resistance that can be easily crossed into elite commercial varieties. To read more from the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Services, follow this link, ACES.

Farmers Speak Out for 'Technology in a Seed'
An article by the Council for Biotechnology Information argues that more farmers from around the world are planting genetically enhanced crops because they are producing better harvests citing four farmers from India, the Philippines, Romania and Europe who recently spoke at a news conference in support of biotechnology. To read the article, follow this link Farmers.

GM Bans Rouse California Farm Industry
Following the GM ban in two counties — Mendocino and Trinity — and ballots in November in another four California counties — Humboldt, Marin, San Luis Obispo and Butte — the Californian farm industry, worried that county bans on biotech crops could spread throughout the state, is gearing up to fight. To read more on this report from the Sacramento Bee, follow this link GM Ban. For comments on these moves in California, go to Truth About Trade & Technology.

USDA Told To Disclose 'Biopharm' Locations
On August 5, 2004, the Honolulu Advertiser reported that a federal judge had instructed the U.S Department of Agriculture to reveal where four companies have received permits for open-field testing of pharmaceutical crops in Hawaii and to reveal the locations to the environmental watchdog group Earthjustice and the Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit that challenges food production technologies. Under the judgeâs ruling, Earthjustice must keep the information confidential for at least 90 days. The judge gave the USDA another 90 days to prove that releasing the locations to the public would cause irreparable damage to the biotech industry. The four companies affected are Monsanto Co., the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, ProdiGene Inc. and Garst Seed Co. For more, follow this link Hawaii.

A Genetically Modified Survey
The United Kingdom Government's public consultation exercise on GM food, 'GM Nation?', was broadly accepted as an accurate reflection of the public's attitudes. However, Dr Scott Campbell, a lecturer in the philosophy department and in the Institute for the Study of Genetics, Biorisks and Society at the University of Nottingham argues that this is not the case. The 'GM Nation?' report concluded that the British general public is overwhelmingly against GM technology, with feelings ranging from 'suspicion and scepticism, to hostility and rejection' based on questionnaires answered by 36,500 people, as well as by additional comments received. Dr. Scott argues that the large sample certainly looks impressive but notes that, as the reports authors concede, it is a self-selected sample, and therefore is almost certainly not random. As a self-selected sample, it is probably comprised mostly of those with strong opinions on the subject. He continues that the fact that tens of thousands of the sort of people who get worked up about GM wrote in to say that they get worked up about it tells us nothing much about the rest of the population, especially when one considers that none of the 'GM Nation?' budget was spent on advertising, and so most of the people who knew about it (before the results hit the headlines) were the activists. To read the complete article, follow this link, spiked-science.

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.

Industry and People

The Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA) is seeking a Chief Executive Officer to assume responsibility for the day-to-day management and ongoing business of the association, including member and industry outreach, finances and administration, program management and business development and fund-raising. AOSCA is a non-profit corporation whose members are 44 official seed certifying agencies in the U.S., with additional members in Canada, South America, Australia and New Zealand. AOSCA's stated mission is to assist its members in providing certification, quality assurance, identity preservation and other services, thus enabling it to function as a world leader in facilitating the movement of seed, grain, plant and other agricultural products. AOSCA's members have determined that the organization needs a dedicated professional staff to assist in fulfilling the mission statement, to build member and client relationships and to capitalize on new business opportunities that fit the members' various resources. Individuals interested in this opportunity should submit a letter of application and résumé to: Allan B. Simons, AOSCA President, 2120 E. Allen Road, Tucson, AZ 85719. E-mail: absimons@ag.arizona.edu.

ASTA members, North-Gro Seeds Inc (North-Gro) and Precision Alliance Group LLC (PAG) have announced a joint operating agreement that creates a new management company, Gro-Alliance LLC, to operate the seed corn production facilities of North-Gro and PAG. Gro-Alliance will be headquartered in Cuba City and officially begin doing business in March 2005 with Lou Schweigert serving as CEO.

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