30 GERMINATION.CA MARCH 2019 ON A WARM CANADIAN day last summer, seven people from Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Mexico arrived in Saskatoon, Sask., to participate in a high-level study tour on plant variety protec- tion for promoting investment in plant breeding. Organized by SeCan and the Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) office of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the tour was spon- sored by a long list of seed industry players in Canada: SeCan, Corteva Agriscience, Limagrain, Nutrien, the Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA), the Canadian Seed Growers Association (CSGA), the Canadian Plant Technology Agency (CPTA) and the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre (CDC). But it was a truly global effort: the tour was funded by the World Intellectual Property Organization, (WIPO), the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality of the Netherlands. The tour was an opportunity to showcase the way the Canadian industry came together in 2015 to adopt the 1991 Act of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV 91), 24 years after becoming a UPOV member. “Canada is not so different from us in the sense of what the landscape looks like regarding plant breeding, production and commercializa- tion,” says Diego Risso, executive director of the Seed Association of the Americas (SAA). “Every stakeholder has its interests and the role of the government is to provide a good and fair regula- tory framework and enforcement in order to meet everyone’s interests and business.” Most Latin American countries are signatories to UPOV ’78, which provides fewer protections for plant breeders’ intellectual properties and fewer opportunities to collect royalties on new innova- tions, presenting a threat to plant breeding. According to Risso, some Latin American countries have incorporated articles or provisions of UPOV ’91, but to fully update seed law to UPOV ’91 requires what he calls a “good atmos- phere to reach a political will.” “Canada provides some great insights on how a process of this kind should take place, to reach a good ending, balancing all parties’ interests,” he says. Canada’s path to full ratification is still fresh in the minds of industry players, and this was a key benefit of the tour, says Todd Hyra, western Canadian business manager for SeCan. Canada recently ratified UPOV ’91, so other countries are looking to our system, he says. According to Anthony Parker, commissioner of the PBR Office, fully ratifying UPOV ’91 was a long and difficult process, but Canada’s experi- ence wasn’t unique. “The Latin American coun- tries Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico signed on to UPOV ’78 much like Canada did but are seeing struggles advancing changes to the law,” he says. Broad Perspective Given the complexity of the fabric of the seed industry in Canada, it was important to tour CANADIANPBRISAMODEL FORTHEWORLD CANADAONTHEWORLDSEEDSTAGE EDITOR’SNOTE: Weintendthisstory tobethefirstina seriesshowcasing Canada’sleadership ontheworldseed stageanditsrolein helpingshapeglobal policyinaneffort tobetterfeedthe world.Gotanidea? Letusknow!Email mzienkiewicz@ issuesink.com. Latin America faces an ongoing struggle over plant breeders’ rights. Canada’s Partners in Innovation approach offers one way forward. Julienne Issacs