Seed E-News

July 9, 2004

Mexico Planting Seeds Annual Report 2004
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City reports that Mexican seed imports in CY 2003 totaled $442 million, up from $354 million the previous year, due to increased areas planted to vegetables that were destined for the export market, especially in the United States. The United States captured 46 percent of the market, exporting $204 million worth of seeds to Mexico. The value of seed exports from Mexico decreased 6 percent from the previous year to $95 million. To read complete report, follow this link Mexico.

Pathologists: Soybean Rust will Arrive in the U.S. — Eventually
For U.S. soybean growers, it's not a matter of if soybean rust will hit the states, just a matter of when. The more educated growers are about the fungus, the better prepared they will be to manage it when that time does arrive. To read more on this report from SeedQuest, follow the link Soybean Rust.

USDA Grants Protection to 13 New Plant Varieties
In Washington, DC on July 7, 2004, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued certificates of protection to developers of 13 new varieties of seed-reproduced and tuber-propagated plants. They include wheat and cotton. The 13 certificates are being 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 13 certificates are:

• the AP 7126 and ST 4793R varieties of cotton, developed by Emergent Genetics, Inc., Memphis, TN;
• the Outlook* and Choteau* varieties of common wheat, developed by Montana Agricultural Experiment Station, Bozeman, MT;
• the USG 3592 variety of common wheat, developed by University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc. (UGARF) & Florida Agricultural Experiment Station (FAES), Athens, GA;
• the Cooper*, Beretta*, and Freyr* varieties of common wheat, developed by Monsanto Company, Creve Coeur, MO;
• the Coker 9312* and Coker 9375* varieties of common wheat, developed by Syngenta Seeds, Inc., Minneapolis, MN;
• the Steele-ND* variety of common wheat, developed by NDSU Research Foundation, Fargo, ND; and
• the GALIL* and NEGEV* varieties of common wheat, developed by Hazera Genetics, Ltd., Varom, ISRAEL

* In the United States seed of this variety (1) shall be sold by variety name only as a class of certified seed and (2) shall conform to the number of generations specified by the owner of the rights (84 STAT. 1542, as amended, 7 U.S.C. 2321 ET SEQ).

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.Ê 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/pvp.htm.

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.Ê 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.Ê 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.Ê 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

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