Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 6056 GERMINATION.CA MARCH 2017 GIANT VIEWS CHARTINGAPATHTOSUCCESS Scott Horner, General Manager, HyTech Production Ltd. That’s what we need to do to remain competitive — be innova- tive and forward thinking in our approach. Very soon, our six respective industry organizations will be engag- ing with grower associations and with government, collaborating very broadly to ensure what’s developed is well thought-out and comprehen- sive in ensuring we can continue to deliver safe, healthy products to market. As a former CSTA president, I know firsthand what great things our industry is capable of. We’re on the cusp of something even greater, and the next number of months will be ones to watch. Stay tuned, because it all starts with the seed. ON FEB. 6, the chair of Finance Minister Bill Morneau's council of economic advisers called on the federal gov- ernment to work hard at reforming the Canadian econ- omy in the wake of Donald Trump's election as president of the United States. “We're a small trading nation. We've got to take more control of our own destiny,” chair Dominic Barton told reporters. “We can't just rely on a global system [that we assume is] going to naturally grow.” The council’s new report, titled The Path to Prosperity, is extremely encouraging for agriculture. It nicely identi- fies the many opportunities for our industry that exist out there. Demand for food is expected to rise 70 per cent by 2050, it notes, and farmers need to produce as much food in the next 45 years as they did in the last 10,000. A stag- gering figure! A good deal of this demand, the report adds, will come from emerging markets, where some three billion people are expected to enter the middle class from 2010 to 2030. This presents a huge opportunity for Canada. I believe we’re set to seize that opportunity like never before. To quote my friend and current Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA) president Brent Derkatch, we’re as close as ever to being in the right place at the right time with the right product and the right message. I know this because of the conversations I’ve had in recent months, many of them inspired by the Seed Synergy Collaboration Project that our country’s six major seed sector organizations — CSTA, Canadian Seed Growers’ Association, Canadian Seed Analysts Association of Canada, Canadian Seed Institute, Canadian Plant Technology Agency and CropLife Canada — are a part of. The project is meant to chart a new course for the Canadian seed industry, and I believe it’s already working. Throughout the history of our six organizations, we have never communicated as effectively amongst each other as we are doing today. The awareness that’s devel- oping around the challenges we all face, and the opportu- nity to face those challenges together more effectively, is becoming more apparent today than ever before. Look at the success Partners in Innovation had in moving UPOV 91 forward in Canada. I see similar ben- efits coming through the Seed Synergy activity. The Seed Synergy project will help the industry move further, faster. Technology is moving at such a fast pace. The regulatory system we have today is effective and is a model many jurisdictions in the world point to as a suc- cessful one. However, our regulatory system is a victim of its own success. It was developed over many decades, with solutions to challenges being bolted on as they came up, and it’s become cumbersome and not as reactive and efficient as it needs to be. The United States Department of Agriculture is looking at new breed- ing techniques and considering the following piece of legislation: if a product derived from a new breeding technique could have been derived from regular breeding methods, then there’s no need for it to be regulated in any way. “THROUGHOUTTHEHISTORYOF OURSIXORGANIZATIONS,WE HAVENEVERCOMMUNICATED ASEFFECTIVELYAMONGSTEACH OTHERASWEAREDOINGTODAY.”