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Seed E-News
October 17, 2003
Farm Seed and Lawn Seed Conference Keynote Speaker
ASTA is pleased to announce that Deputy Under Secretary for Natural
Resources and Conservation Mack Gray has been confirmed as the keynote
speaker at the upcoming Farm Seed and Lawn Seed Conference in Kansas
City. Deputy Under Secretary Gray will speak on Monday, November
3 during the Farm Seed Division meeting. The meeting will begin
at 8:00 a.m. and conclude by 10:00 a.m. The Under Secretary will
provide an update on the Conservation Reserve Program and other
Farm Bill programs. For more information about the conference, follow
this link Kansas City.
Industry People
Syngenta Seeds has announced that Laura Westby has joined them as
Corporate Counsel responsible for providing legal support primarily
to the Vegetables and Flower Seeds business units. She came to Syngenta
from Schlumberger-Sema, an IT and professional services company,
where she was a member of the global legal team providing support
to various Strategic Business Units. Prior to that, she was legal
counsel for Federated Mutual Insurance Co. Laura received her BA
from Gustavus Adolphus College and her J.D. from Hamline University
School of Law and is currently working on her MBA at the University
of St Thomas.
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.
UK Public Rejects GM Foods
It was reported in the British media at the end of September that
the British public has rejected the growing and eating GM foods.
The rejection comes in a report announcing the results of the British
Government's "GM Nation" public debate and sums up the
feedback from more than 600 public meetings attended by at least
8,000 people since June 2003. The news comes at a time when the
UK and other European governments are under increasing international
pressure—particularly from the U.S.—to lift a 5-year moratorium
on GM crops. The report, along with earlier scientific and economic
evaluations and results of field trials, will help inform the British
Governmentâs decision later this year on whether to end the moratorium.
However, some commentators believe that the British Prime Minister,
Tony Blair, does not have the political capital to force through
the commercial growing of GM crops given his growing unpopularity
over the UK's involvement in Iraq.
Key messages from the report included that British people are generally
uneasy about GM and that finding out more simply deepened people's
concerns. Also, few people support early commercialization, with
more than half attending the debates saying they never want GM crops
grown in the UK. They also expressed widespread mistrust of government
and multinational companies. There was acceptance that developing
countries have special interests, but it was argued that fairer
trade rules would do more to eliminate hunger than GM crops. The
only consolation in the report for supporters of GM crops was evidence
that opponents "hijacked" public meetings and sent most of the letters—so
skewing the outcome. Observers at meetings counted five opponents
for every supporter or neutral person who attended.
Top GM Food Company Abandons British Crop Trials
A British Sunday newspaper reported at the end of September that
Bayer, a key GM crop developer, has decided to halt trial of GM
plants in the UK, blaming the insistence of the Environment Secretary
Margaret Beckett that the locations of all trials be made public.
Until then, Bayer's crop subsidiary, Bayer CropScience, believed
that it was close to a deal that would allow GM crop test sites—which
are regularly destroyed by protesters—to be kept secret. Instead
of having to publish exact map references for fields, companies
would only have to name the county in which it was holding a trial.
Most GM crop trials carried out over the past few years have been
sabotaged, not only those of Bayer. Other companies have pulled
out. Now Bayer, the last to continue with them, has decided to call
it a day. The fact that companies also specifically blame Beckett
for this latest blow is intriguing given that she recently wrote
to her fellow Ministers saying that Britain should back EU laws
that ban all GM-free zones, a move that would give the go-ahead
to the commercial growing of GM crops in the UK.
Brazil Approves GM Soybeans
Brazil, the world's second-largest soybean producer, will allow
the cultivation of gene-altered beans for a second year, ceding
to pressure from farmers to lift a ban on their use, reports the
Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology. Vice President Jose Alencar
said he will sign an executive order that allows planting to go
ahead for the 2003-2004 crop across Brazil amid lobbying from farmers
and Monsanto. The executive order will override a law that has banned
the use of gene-altered beans since 1998. For more information,
follow this link GM
Crops OK'd.
Brazil May Overtake US in Soybean Production
Brazil could be only five years away from becoming a major player
in the grain industry. According to the UK-based Grain and Feed
Trade Association, Brazil is opening up virgin savannah that in
four or five years could see a soybean crop that will not only rival
the U.S. harvest but could exceed it. Production has increased 10%
annually in recent years and is expected to continue to rise following
the governmentâs decision on GM Soybeans.Ê For more on this story,
follow this link Soy
Crop.
Anti-GM Stance in California
It is not only in Europe that there is resistance to GM crops. The
Pew Initiative reports that there is a campaign to make Mendocino
County, California, the first in the United States to ban genetically
modified crops. Already, similar efforts are taking root in neighboring
counties, drawing Northern California into the international debate
about GM crops. For more details, please follow the link Anti-GM
California.
Chinese Plant Variety Protection List
The US Embassy in Beijing has reported that the Chinese Ministry
of Agriculture (MOA) released its recent additions to the Chinese
new plant variety protection list on July 24, 2003. This report
provides the scientific and common names for seeds and seedlings
afforded Plant Breeders' Rights by MOA and the State Forestry Administration.
The complete report can be viewed in PDF
format.
Upcoming Events
November 2-4, 2003
ASTA Farm Seed/Lawn Seed
Western Seed Association Convention
Westin Crown Plaza
Kansas City, MO.
Tel: 1-888-890-7333
To register, please follow this link: Kansas
City
December 10-12, 2003
33rd Soybean Seed & 58th Corn & Sorghum Seed Conferences & Seed
Expo
Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chicago, IL.
Tel: 1-888-890-7333
To register, please follow this link: Chicago
January 24-27, 2004
43rd Vegetable & Flower Seed Conference
Savannah, GA.
Tel: 1-888-890-7333
To register, please follow this link: Savannah
May 24-26, 2004
International Seed Federation Congress
Berlin, Germany
www.worldseed2004.com
June 27-30, 2004
121st ASTA Annual Convention
Wyndham Franklin Plaza
Philadelphia, PA.
Tel: 1-888-890-7333
Annual Convention
June 16-25, 2005
122nd ASTA Annual Convention
Sheraton Seattle Hotel and Tower
Seattle, WA
July 7-14, 2006
Joint ASTA-CSTA Meeting
Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chicago, IL
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