I grew up alongside a family seed business and have personally been growing seed since the late 1990s in Palmerston, Ont. This past July, at the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association (CSGA) annual general meeting, it was an honour to have come on as president, taking the torch from our past president, Joe Rennick.
My time with CSGA, as a member and on the board, has been an educational experience. I’ve learned that CSGA is made up of people like myself who want to step up to better the business of seed and provide a solid system for the future generation of producers. To do this, we must work with the complete confidence of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), seed growers, producers and sector stakeholders.
With over 118 years under our belt, CSGA has earned that confidence. We have been and still are the go-to organization for seed crop certification. We support innovation and new technologies that meet the seed sector’s needs today and tomorrow. As we evolve and modernize, we are getting better at explaining exactly what we do, why Certified seed is so important, and how it impacts Canadian agriculture.
With the CFIA’s Seed Regulatory Modernization (SRM) project in full swing, we all need to work toward a shared vision for the seed sector — creating a strong and prosperous next-generation seed system for Canada. And with Seeds Canada, we now have another seed sector partner with which to work.
CSGA and Seeds Canada are complementary organizations, and SRM provides each of us the opportunity to play to our strengths. Seeds Canada has many interests ranging from intellectual property to phytosanitary, biotech, audit, and pest control product regulations. While CSGA has positions on some of these issues, it is not the focus of our association.
We are focused wholly on seed certification, standards development for seed genetic assurance, and representing our 3,100 seed-growing members. It is quite a varied landscape within which everybody gets to operate.
We’re at the beginning of our relationship with Seeds Canada. We are talking to each other and exploring our SRM policy positions and ideas from both sides. Both organizations want a growing and thriving seed sector.
We are ready to take on more delegated authority from the Government of Canada for seed certification. We are well positioned to be the formal caretaker for certification — an important task that sets Canada apart on the world seed stage. Our main goal is to carry out certification and standards development so well that people think seed certification is easy. A streamlined certification system created for the modern age is what we want.
As our executive director Doug Miller pointed out in this column back in September, our standards-setting process actively involves many organizations throughout the sector. We never unilaterally set standards; we unite seed experts under the CSGA umbrella to do this.
With formal SRM discussions continuing, I think the months and years ahead will be good for Canadian seed. I’m happy to focus my presidency on helping lead CSGA and the entire sector to a place of success.
