National summit supports publicly funded breeding research |
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Read proceedings from the conference [PDF] University researchers, policymakers and non-profit organization representatives discussed the decline in public funding and rise in private funding for plant and animal breeding research during the Seeds and Breeds Summit September 6-8 in Washington, D.C. The summit grew out of discussions during the past year among a group of people working in sustainable agriculture, including Fred Kirschenmann at the Leopold Center and three agronomy researchers at Iowa State University.
The consensus from the summit was that short-, medium-, and long-term strategies are required to ensure support for publicly funded plant and animal breeding programs and maintaining plant seeds and animal breeds in the public domain, especially in light of current and future challenges facing agriculture.
The group is concerned that patent and ownership laws may lead to greater consolidation of germplasm in private hands, and neglect of other cropping and livestock breeding problems. Lack of public funding also may affect the education and training of the next generation of breeders as researchers leave universities for the private sector.
The planning committee was led by Michael Sligh of the Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration, or ETC Group (formerly the Rural Advancement Foundation International, RAFI). Other members included ISU agronomists Charles Brummer, Jean-Luc Jannink and Kendall Lamke; researchers from Minnesota and Wisconsin; and representatives from the Center for Rural Affairs, the Land Institute, Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society, and the Organic Farming Research Foundation.
The group supports public plant and animal breeding within the National Research Initiative (NRI). The Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems (IFAFS) was recently absorbed into the NRI with a promise that 20 percent of the funding would be directed toward IFAFS areas including farm and ranch profitability, natural resource conservation, and rural policy research. The Leopold Center also provided travel expenses for five Iowa farmers to attend the conference. They were Don Adams, Madrid; Laura Krouse, Mt. Vernon; Roger Lansink, Odebolt; Paul Mugge, Sutherland; and Dan Specht, McGregor.
“Public breeders are needed to perform research not undertaken by private companies such as developing minor crops, specialty crops and cover crops,” Mugge wrote in his report on the summit. “Unfortunately, these necessary functions are being jeopardized either by lack of funding of changes in the laws governing intellectual property.”
Adams said he also was worried that the focus was on high-yielding varieties of major crops. “Public plant breeders need to provide research support to help farmers develop crops that will fit into the cropping systems of the future,” he said.
Lansink said public research is needed for other reasons. “They’re very important for the economic good of producers and for food security for everyone in this country,” he said. “[I feel that] sustainable plant and animal programs are experiencing the same fate as are sustainable farms.”
The Center for Rural Affairs has prepared a report on this issue, “Ownership and Legal and Public Policy Frameworks for Reinvigorating a Federal Public Plant and Animal Breeding System.” Order from the Center for Rural Affairs, P.O. Box 406, Walthill, NE 68067, (402) 846-5428 or view it on the web. The Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration is preparing proceedings from the September 2003 meeting, which will be available from the Leopold Center. |
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