Members of the Canadian Seed Growers Association will officially begin their first in-person annual meeting in four years tomorrow in St. John’s, Nfld. On the agenda are a number of important topics including Seed Regulatory Modernization, CSGA’s new “This is Canadian Certified Seed” campaign, seed certification around the globe, and a lot more.
Bring yourself up to speed on some of what will happen this week:
Glyn Chancey to be Named an Honorary Life Member of CSGA
This former executive director of the CSGA led the organization through the Seed Synergy project and helped position the organization to be a leader in Canada’s seed certification system.
In 2015, Chancey was hired to be the executive director of the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association. He brought to CSGA a wealth of experience in various government positions.
Over the previous 30 years, he held executive positions with a number of government departments and agencies, including the Market and Industry Services Branch of Agriculture and Agri-food Canada> the Plant Health and Biosecurity Directorate of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the Red Tape Reduction Commission Secretariat at the Treasury Board Secretariat, and the Canada-U.S. Regulatory Cooperation Council Secretariat at the Privy Council Office.
He stepped into CSGA at a time of major change in the seed sector. Alternative Service Delivery (ASD) of seed crop inspection was beginning, as was the Seed Synergy conversation — an effort to develop a common vision for the seed sector.
Chancey retired from CSGA on Feb. 1, 2021.
Csaba Gaspar to Talk Seed Certification Around the World
Attendees will hear from Sarah Wilbanks, AOSCA’s CEO and Csaba Gaspar, the OECD Seed Schemes’ program manager, about seed certification systems around the world.
The OECD Seed Schemes have been exploring ways to improve the efficiency and integrity of their certification and labelling system since 2013, Gaspar told European Seed in 2020. This exploration was driven at first by a need for more reliable labelling and certification options to support the increasing volume of seed lots being traded internationally and a heightened risk of fraud in the seed sector.
“A number of countries have already digitalised their national certification systems. These initiatives provide opportunities to build on this capacity to develop an international network, but also present new challenges in terms of the interoperability of existing systems,” he said.
“When the Schemes first started exploring digital solutions for certification, blockchain technologies stood out because of their potential to improve efficiency, decentralize the storage of transaction information, provide greater transparency and traceability, and help build trust.”
Watch a 2017 European Seed interview with Csaba:
