b'EDITORS MESSAGEMAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!For the remainder of 2020, the worldwish to make this the norm. I would like would be coping with this serious healthto argue strongly against that. crisis. It caused the worst health, eco- Having attended hundreds of sec-nomic and social crisis in our lifetime. Totion, committee, or board meetings at date, February 2021, more than 2.4 mil- national, regional or global seed associ-lion people have lost their lives and moreation level, I have come to understand than 110 million infections have beenthat it is vital to participate in person. recorded so far. The OECD estimatesIts a two-way street: any seed associ-that the year 2020 will witness the worstation can do its outreach better if they recession since World War II, with a pro- hear from as many members as possible, jected fall in global GDP by 4.5%. Manyand as a seed company you learn a lot economies will not recover their 2019by your attendance e.g., about upcom-output levels until 2022 at the earliest. ing seed regulations or how to tackle a On the seed side, there were severalcertain challenge. Equally important initial struggles, such as logistical bar- are our interactions which take place at riers and stay-at-home orders for staffthe confines of the physical meeting: our from both the seed companies, as wellcoffee breaks, dinners and drinks at the as from the official seed inspection andbar. All serve a very useful purpose of Marcel Bruins testing organizations. Various studies andsharing our stories which each other and surveys showed the divergence betweenlearning from them. countries with some regions harder hitAttending online is just not the 2 020 will be a year we will not forgetthan others. But eventually the hurdlessame. As many of you, I attended many so easily. It has been burned intowere taken, and mitigating measures werevirtual meetings in 2020, and although our memories, like the fall of theput in place, such as the green lanes,the attendance was good, I have to say, Berlin wall, 11 Sept. 2001, Brexit, andwhich allowed essential goods to crossthe interaction was not. Meeting times the Paris terrorist attacks. Decades fromborders almost unencumbered. Thanks towere often shorter, in most cases there now we will still be reminiscing about thesuch measures, it allowed the seed sectorwas hardly any discussion, very few terrible loss of life, the craziness of it allin several countries to recover relativelyQ&A, and overall, our human interac-and which of the measures we dreadedquickly. In other countries, the negativetion, which is part of the life blood of the most.impact of the crisis was felt more severe.seed associations, suffered. About a year ago, back in JanuaryFor me, this will be one of theIn many parts of our lives, commu-2020, as we entered a new decade, ourremarkable success stories that stoodnication is key and behavioural experts news channels were filled with sto- out in 2020. Thanks to the flexibilityagree that around 70-90% of our com-ries about the Yemen war, bushfires inand resilience of the EU seed sector, itmunication is non-verbal. And this is Australia, floods in Jakarta and Brexitbounced back with surprising speed,exactly the part that doesnt come across struggles. And many of us were planningand found new ways to go about theirthat well in our online meetings. So once to attend one or several of the major seedbusiness, create new plant varieties, get2021 is well on track, vaccines have been events, such as the Euroseeds congress inhigh-quality seeds to the farmers in timedistributed to large swathes of the pop-Malta or the ISF congress in South Africa.and communicate in new ways. ulation, and the major seed events again But at the same time, news was trick- However, despite the bounce back,start to take place physically, make sure ling in about a novel coronavirus origi- many of us had to cancel our participationyou register and participate in person. nating from Wuhan, China, soon namedin the major seed events, and we met eachYoull be surprised how refreshing and COVID-19 and declared a pandemic. Thisother all year online on various platforms.rewarding it will be! virus swept through Asia, into EuropeAnd here is a worry that I have: now that and subsequently spread out all over thethe budget departments in companies seeMarcel Bruinsglobe, bringing the worlds economies tothat life goes on, even without travellingeditorial director, European Seedtheir knees. physically to the seed events, they maymbruins@issuesink.com4IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'