b'PARTNER CONTENTThree Decades in Seed Science Have Taught Me One Thing: The Future Wont WaitThirty years after we founded BioVision, I look back at the evolution of our work at SGS Canada Crop Scienceand why Im more optimistic than ever about what comes next.A s of this year it is 30 years since we sat down andcals, new traits, new chemistriesour customers still signed the papers that created BioVision Seed Labswant the same two things they always have:in Edmonton, Alta. September 9, 1996. People keepQuality. And service.reminding me that three decades is a long time, andThats it. Tools change. Methods evolve. But quality when I stop long enough to think about it, it really is. and service are still the pillars everything else rests on. Starting the business wasnt the result of some master plan. It was part determination, part nave opti- The Real Foundation: People and IntegrityBy: Trevormism, and part seeing an opportunity that I just couldntTechnology doesnt build great companiespeople do.Nysetvold,ignore. I had partners who saw the opportunity, mentorsWeve always hired with intention. Weve kept turno-Senior Directorwho believed in me, colleagues who encouraged me,ver low. Weve held ourselves to high standards and - Crop Science,and an industry thatwithout knowing itpushed meadmitted when we fell short. And in a high-throughput SGS Northforward. Without that support system, none of this wouldanalytical testing lab, mistakes will happen. Anyone who America exist today. says otherwise is fooling themselves. What matters is how you respondquickly, honestly, and with a com-Farming Has Always Been Home mitment to improve.Growing up on a farm near Paradise Valley, Alta., shapedIntegrity isnt a slogan for us. Its non-negotiable. You who I am in ways I didnt fully appreciate until mucheither have it or you dont.later. After studying at the University of Saskatchewan, I worked in Manitoba for a while, but with the family farmInnovation in a Regulated Worldstill going, I always felt that pull back West. Innovation is tricky in a regulated environment. The test Managing seed testing for United Grain Growersmethods are set in stone, and you dont get to reinvent (UGG) was the first time I clearly saw the need for athem overnight. But you can innovate in non-regulated dedicated third-party analytical lab. And once you see anareas and around the edges: value added testing, before opportunity like that, its hard to un-see it. We part- the test, after the test, in how data flows, in how clients nered with Norwest Labs and UGG, got BioVision off thereceive information, and in the systems that help every-ground, and later I bought them out as we grew. thing run.Fast-forward to 2017. We became part of SGS, andThats where weve spent most of our timeand its today were SGS Crop Science. The name changed, butwhere a lot of our future will be, too.our purpose didnt. People often ask me what things will look like 30 years from now. I wish I had an answer. Even predictions The World Before the Internet we feel confident making will be wrong in some way.When BioVision first opened its doors, we didnt evenWhen the internet first arrived, we had no idea what have internet in the office. We had phones, fax machines,it would eventually let us do. AI will be the same. Itll take paper, and people. us places we expectand places we cant yet imagine. And you know what? We got the work done. Some of those changes will be exciting. Some will be I still remember the moment we plugged in that firstuncomfortable. All of them will demand adaptation.modem, listened to the dial-up tone, and watched theBut what we do will endure. It always has. It will look screen flicker to life. Then we all sort of looked at eachdifferent. It will feel different. It will use different tools other and thought: OK, now what? and operate at different speeds. But the core valuesToday its almost impossible to imagine running a labstewardship, resilience, community, the belief that what without instant communication, real-time data sharing,we do mattersthose wont change.and all the tools we take for granted. And yet, in a funnyAs we head into our 30th anniversary year, what I way, that slower world taught us something that stillwant the industry to know is simple: we are still growing. matters today: rely on people, not just tools. Rely onWe are still committed. And we are just getting started.relationships, not just systems. If the first 30 years have taught me anything, its that Despite everythingdespite the enormous techni- steady values, good people, and a willingness to adapt cal leaps, the regulatory shifts, the explosion of biologi- will carry you a very long way.JANUARY 2026SEEDWORLD.COM/CANADA 31'