b'May the Force be with You!2020 WILL BE Ayear we will not forget so easily. Itand resilience of the EU seed sector, it bounced back has been burned into our memories, like the fall of thewith surprising speed, and found new ways to go Berlin wall, Sept. 11 2001, Brexit and the Paris terroristabout their business, create new plant varieties, get attacks. Decades from now we will still be reminiscinghigh-quality seeds to the farmers in time and commu-about the terrible loss of life, the craziness of it all andnicate in new ways.which of the measures we dreaded the most.However, despite the bounce back, many of us had About a year ago, back in January 2020, as weto cancel our participation in the major seed events, entered a new decade, our news channels wereand we met each other all year online on various filled with stories about the Yemen war, bushfires inplatforms. And here is a worry that I have: now that Australia, floods in Jakarta and Brexit struggles. Andthe budget departments in companies see that life MARCEL BRUINS ismany of us were planning to attend one or several ofgoes on, even without traveling physically to the seed editorial director ofthe major seed events, such as the Euroseeds congressevents, they may wish to make this the norm. I would our sister publicationin Malta or the ISF congress in South Africa.like to argue strongly against that. European Seed. But at the same time, news was trickling in aboutHaving attended hundreds of section, committee, a novel coronavirus originating from Wuhan, China,or board meetings at national, regional or global seed soon named COVID-19 and declared a pandemic.association level, I have come to understand that it is This virus swept through Asia, into Europe and sub- vital to participate in person. Its a two-way street: any sequently spread out all over the globe, bringing theseed association can do its outreach better if they hear worlds economies to their knees. from as many members as possible, and as a seed For the remainder of 2020, the world would becompany you learn a lot by your attendance e.g., about coping with this serious health crisis. It caused theupcoming seed regulations or how to tackle a certain worst health, economic and social crisis in our lifetime.challenge. Equally important are our interactions which To date, February 2021, more than 1.8 million peopletake place at the confines of the physical meeting: our have lost their lives and more than 87.6 million infec- coffee breaks, dinners and drinks at the bar. All serve a tions have been recorded so far. The OECD estimatesvery useful purpose of sharing our stories which each that the year 2020 will witness the worst recessionother and learning from them. since World War II, with a projected fall in global GDPAttending online is just not the same. As many of by 4.5%. Many economies will not recover their 2019you, I attended many virtual meetings in 2020, and output levels until 2022 at the earliest. although the attendance was good, I have to say, the On the seed side, there were several initial strug- interaction was not. Meeting times were often shorter, gles, such as logistical barriers and stay-at-homein most cases there was hardly any discussion, very orders for staff from both the seed companies, asfew Q&A, and overall, our human interaction, which is well as from the official seed inspection and testingpart of the life blood of seed associations, suffered. organizations. Various studies and surveys showedIn many parts of our lives, communication is key the divergence between countries with some regionsand behavioral experts agree that around 70-90% of harder hit than others. But eventually the hurdles wereour communication is non-verbal. And this is exactly taken, and mitigating measures were put in place, suchthe part that doesnt come across that well in our as the green lanes, which allowed essential goods toonline meetings. So once 2021 is well on track, vaccines cross borders almost unencumbered. Thanks to suchhave been distributed to large swathes of the popula-measures, it allowed the seed sector in several coun- tion, and the major seed events again start to take tries to recover relatively quickly. In other countries, theplace physically, make sure you register and partici-negative impact of the crisis was felt more severe.pate in person. Youll be surprised how refreshing and For me, this will be one of the remarkable successrewarding it will be!SWstories that stood out in 2020. Thanks to the flexibility 64/ SEEDWORLD.COMFEBRUARY 2021'