66 GERMINATION.CA MARCH 2019 Who said what? GLOBAL SEED COMPANIES NOT REACHING ENOUGH SMALL FARMERS Global seed companies are adapting their products to combat the impact of climate change and address nutrition needs, but limited access to quality seed in manyemergingeconomiespersists,withtheglobalseed industry reaching just 10% of the world’s smallholder farmers, according to a new study. TheAccesstoSeedsIndex2019–GlobalSeedCompanies, published by the Amsterdam-based Access to Seeds Foundation, evaluates the activities of the 13 leading global seed companies to shine a light on where the industrycandomoretoraisesmallholderfarmerproduc- tivity,improvenutritionandmitigatetheeffectsofclimate change through the development and dissemination of quality seed. The research shows that sales by the 13 global seed companiesonlyreachedaround47millionoftheworld’s 500 million smallholder farmers in 2017. “Althoughtheindustryismakingadvancesindeveloping morenutritiousandclimate-resilientvarieties,it’sclear that more needs to be done,” said Ido Verhagen, execu- tive director of the Access to Seeds Index. “Material changes won’t be possible without reaching a greater percentageofsmallholderfarmers,whoaccountforthe lion’s share – 80% – of global food production. CANADA GETS ITS FIRST FEMALE AG MINISTER For the first time in Canadian history, our country has a female agriculture minister. In a cabinet shuffle March 1, Quebec MP Marie-Claude Bibeau was appointed to fill the role of agriculture minister after Lawrence MacAulay was moved from the position and appointed as veterans affairs minister. Bibeau previously served as Minister of International Development. "It's a huge privilege. I come from a rural riding, a dairy riding, in fact, in the south of Quebec, so I'm very close to the producers in Quebec," she said after the swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. “I know that Minister @mclaudebibeau truly cares about farmers and agriculture and you will be extremely well-served with her leadership,” MacAulay tweeted. “I also want to sincerely thank the prime minister for the opportunity to serve as Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food these past three years and for his continued faith and support in extending the opportunity to serve our veterans.” STUDY CLAIMS LARGE MONOCULTURES ARE BAD NEWS FOR THE FUTURE AnewUniversityofTorontostudysuggeststhatgloballywe’regrow- ing more of the same kinds of crops, and this presents major chal- lenges for agricultural sustainability on a global scale. The study, done by an international team of researchers led by U of T assistant professor Adam Martin, used data from the U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) to look at which crops were grown where on large-scale industrial farmlands from 1961 to 2014. They found that within regions crop diversity has actually increased — in North America for example, 93 different crops are now grown compared to 80 back in the 1960s. The problem, Martin says, is that on a global scale we’re now seeing more of the same kinds of crops being grown on much larger scales. In other words, large farms in Asia, Europe, North and South America are beginning to look the same. Soybeans, wheat, rice and corn are prime examples. This decline in global crop diversity is an issue for a number of reasons, Martin says. For one, it affects regional food sovereignty. Thereisalsoanecologicalissue;thinkpotatofamine,butonaglobal scale. Martin adds there’s a policy angle to consider, since govern- ment decisions that favor growing certain kinds of crops may con- tribute to a lack of diversity. “Itwillbeimportanttolookatwhatgovernmentsaredoingtopromote more different types of crops being grown, or at a policy level, are they favouring farms to grow certain types of cash crops,” he adds.