b'A Vision for the FutureTrue to his roots, David Bubeck of Corteva Agriscience draws inspiration from being outside and talks about the importance of trade and technology regulations.Seed World: How do you relax? SW: How has plant breeding David Bubeck: Being outdoors. My wifechanged?and I garden, which helps me through aDB: I came out of graduate school in 1991. lot of the research meetings, and it helpsI did my undergraduate at Iowa State me sustain and endure countless hoursUniversity, my masters degree in soybean of conference room strategy. I get to bebreeding at Iowa State, and then my PhD outside and get dirt under my fingernails;at North Carolina State University in corn its part of my life. breeding. I did basically a QTL (quantitative trait loci) study using molecular markers SW: Beer or wine? at the time. When you think about data DB: Wine. and the amount of data I collected in six months then, we have just collected more SW: What are you reading? than that amount of molecular data in our DB: Emails! Actually, Im re-reading Goodglobal labs during the short time that weve to Great. I wanted to reread it because ofbeen sitting here talking.the merger that weve gone through and subsequent spin that weve now goneSW: What do you think plant through as Corteva Agriscience. I havebreeding will look like in 2040?never read a book twice, but we wantDB: Were at the forefront of genome to make Corteva a great company, so Iediting technology, and I consider this thought I would pick this book up againgenome editing 1.0.We need the and see if I reflect on it differently thanworld to have a synchronous view and when it first came out. global policies toward these technology opportunities; otherwise, we (as in SW: Did you reflect on the booksociety) will never reap the benefits of differently? future versions of enabling plant breeding DB: Yes, I certainly see some thingstechnologies such as genome editing differently now. Its not a birthright forversion 10.0 or 20.0. When we look out to a highly successful company to remain2040, really mastering the genome and great. You must continue innovatingbeing able to leverage genetic diversity at and doing something unique to positionall levels and in all places will be front and yourself for the future. The frontiers ofcenter.the future are changingand we as an organization have to be ready to changeSW: What one adjective would you if we are going to shape the future seeduse to describe the seed industry?market. DB: Only one! Ever-changing.SW88/ SEEDWORLD.COMDECEMBER 2019'