A MOMENT IN TIME
This edition of Seed World covered a momentous event: the official formation of the International Seed Federation (ISF). That year, the International Seed Trade Federation (FIS) and International Association of Plant Breeders (ASSINSEL) merged to create ISF, whose mandate was and is to represent global issues critical to both seed marketers and breeders. FIS President Dietrich Schmidt addressed the delegates in the opening ceremony, saying “You are here to witness the historic merger of FIS and ASSINSEL. The merger has been a challenge, just as was the adoption of hybridization.”
FACTS AND FIGURES FROM THIS 2002 ISSUE:
1,300 delegates and guests are on hand for the World Seed Congress in Chicago, llinois.
15 percent is the amount of growth in the past year in the number of acres dedicated to organic agriculture in the Netherlands.
200 million yuan is the cost of a new Chinese project to create about 100 new varieties of genetically engineered crops, according to China’s Ministry of Science and Technology.
14 billion pounds of extra food is harvested in the United States through the use of biotechnology, according to a study by the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy.
200 is the number of years DuPont has been in existence.
