b'and Harbourt agree: Its imperative to look down the line on the farming operationnot just whats happening throughout the planting to harvest year, but whats happening on the operation during the off season. When it comes to crops bringing value from the seed to the spoon, Weller says there are two different goals he sees: the short-term, consumer driven trend (think your vegetable crops, leafy greens, fruits) and the long-term drivers (the row crops).The real game changer is if we want to prepare our grain basket of this country for whats coming: a changing climate, Weller says. Thats going to require a big-time movement across the main cereal crops and grain crops. If you look at the regions of where corn, soybean and wheat are grown, thats also where the greatest potential for carbon drawdown is. Harbourt says there are potential opportunities that open up,Opportunities are popping up in our industry to bring products especially in the commodity crops that can be turned into a foodfrom seed to spoon. product ingredient. The first on that list for me would be wheat, because youchain we already have in place and start to say, Hey, I need to can take it from the field and grind it into flour, which is the firsttake a page out of the book of the sugar industry.ingredient in a lot of products, he says. In the sustainabilityWhen it comes down to it, their message is simple: every dog world, wheats been one of the first to fall. And theres morecan learn a new trick. complexity around commodity crops such as soy and corn.Weve got a mentality of thinking on a small scale, HarbourtTraceability from Seed to Spooncontinues. But when we can start to think in terms of a bigAnother growing trend to take advantage of is traceability, but picture and thinking of millions and hundreds of millions of acres,theres a question that overhangs: is the grain sector poised to we can start to think cleverly. Thats when you look at the supplyhave that traceability link?That will happen when theres a proven demand and a willing-ness to pay a premium for the commoditized asset, Weller says. Trutella has been working on an approach where theyre trying to use precision ag to track at a very fine scale whats happening in the field. From there, its about being able to track the sustainability components, how the grain was grown and the environmental benefits of that production system.Grain is a huge, massive commodity, he says. It is not sufficient to segment the grain unless theres going to be a willingness to pay or a premium or some kind of market access requirement for that grain.Harbourt agrees that its difficult to segment portions of the grains industry.When we look to the infrastructure overall, its hard to view it big picture, he says. From a sustainability perspective, as well as from a logistics sourcing, durum wheat is something that comes to mind.Durum wheat is grown right up on the border with Canada, but theyre sensitive to moisture, which, in late seasons, can harm durum wheat harvests. Instead of chasing sourcing in those areas, theyre chasing quality, because their product is so tightly connected to the qual-ity of that product, Harbourt says. In some cases, we can fix this traceability with technology. But unfortunately, in others, it comes down to the luck of the draw. I think we can be successful in some areas, but other regions still can be challenging.All-in-all, theres one thing for certain: the seed industry has amazing opportunities up in front of them, especially when it comes to the future of sustainability and traceability.SW36/ SEEDWORLD.COMJANUARY 2021'