b'My own son worked for a seed com-pany, he says. He was a finance major, but those mornings in the fieldand the business forecasting in the afternoonused every skill he had.Matthews doesnt gloss over the chal-lenges: germplasm loss, shrinking public funding, polarizing biotech debates. But in the overlap between science and soci-ety, he sees promise. A chance to realign not just crops, but values.A Star Map for the FutureThat realignment runs deep for Dr. Kawika Winter, a Native HawaiianOver 340 people attended tbiocultural ecologist who views theKona, Hawaii. his years National Association for Plant Bpast as both compass and call to action.reeding meeting in Standing before a map of ancient Austronesian migration routes, he urged attendees to rethink what innovation truly means.Our ancestors navigated the largestFor Native Hawaiians, ocean on the planet using constellations, Winter said. That wasnt just seafaring.crops like kalo (taro), It was systems thinkingan under- ulu (breadfruit), and standing that we are part of, not separatek (sugarcane) are from, the natural world.At the Heeia National Estuarinemore than foodResearch Reserve, Winter draws from atheyre family. worldview in which land and sea, forest and reef, human and crop are one. He points to the Ahupuaa systemtradi-tional land divisions that extended from mountain tops to coral reefsnot as historical footnotes but as ecological blueprints.When you live as part of a system, he explains, you take care of that system. Because its part of you.To emphasize the stakes, Winter turned to science fiction. Holding up images from Star Wars, he contrasted Coruscanta planet consumed by concretewith Yavin 4, lush and alive. Which trajectory are we on? he asked. And which star do we want to follow?For Native Hawaiians, crops like kalo (taro), ulu (breadfruit), and k (sug- For Jaci Barcane) are more than foodtheyreNAPB Earl enson McRoberts, winner of the Crop S y Career Scientist Award and Bayer family. Taro, for instance, appears inOn the lava-strewn slopes of Kohala,innovat ciences head of data stewardship, Hawaiian genealogy as the elder siblinga Lincoln and his team at thecan do. ion is about reimagining what data of humanity. Every cultivar had a name,NoUniversity of Hawaii excavate more a purpose, a story. than soilthey unearth time.JULY 2025SEEDWORLD.COM/CANADA 21'