64 GERMINATION.CA MARCH 2019 SUPPORTED BY: ENDORSED BY: As a seed grower, how can you support something that so many farmers are dead set against? Our current system won’t work forever. Eventually it will fail, and it can be hard to accept that. But you don’t need a crystal ball to see government is putting less and less into plant breeding. It’s easy to say, “Well, government just needs to put more into it.” Well, you can protest until you’re blue in the face, but government has millions of taxpayers to please and they need to appeal to the whole tax base, not just the 1% who are farmers. Yes, change is scary and can be frustrating, but if we approach it with a good attitude we’ll see that the sky is not falling. Did you support this idea from the beginning? I was skeptical when I first heard about it. Now that I’ve got all the facts and under- stand it, I believe it will ultimately be a good thing. But aren’t you concerned about a farmer’s right to save seed being taken away? Farm-saved seed isn’t going away. If you want to use the same variety you have used for years, by all means, do so. You can still do that for as long as demand exists for those varieties. Value creation is only going to be on new varieties and you will have a choice whether you want to grow it and enter into a contract with the breeder or seed company. Otherwise, grow the older varieties. Ward Oatway, Past President, Alberta Seed Growers A seed grower since 1984, Ward farms with his wife Lori and daughters Ezri and Brie, along with his parents, Grant and Lois, on the family farm south of Clive, Alta. Together they farm approximately 1,300 acres of seed barley, wheat, peas and commercial canola. As a seed grower, do you plan to keep growing older varieties for seed? For me it will be a value consideration. CDC Austenson barley has been around for years and works well in this environ- ment — I can’t see myself not growing it as long as I have a customer base for it. If something new comes along and I see value in it and can see my custom- ers seeing value in it, I will grow that. But I can’t see myself doing an overnight switch to growing just varieties subject to a royalty. Tried-and-true varieties will be what sustain seed growers until the game-changing varieties are released and farmers decide to adopt them. “IWASSKEPTICALWHENIFIRSTHEARDABOUTIT.NOWTHATI’VEGOTALLTHEFACTSANDUNDERSTAND IT,IBELIEVEITWILLULTIMATELYBEAGOODTHING.” –WardOatway To view our full-length webinar on this very topic, visit germination.ca/value-creation- mythbusting/