Blip

About this episode

Barcelona, 18 September 2011. Jane Dever from Texas AgriLife Research, USA, was one of the expert in the first panel of the Cotton Dialogues 2011. The panel discussed the issue of "Shaping the future of non-GM seed supply". The issue of supply for non-GM cotton seeds affects not only organic cotton growers, but also cotton growers with smaller margins that prefer to use traditional cotton varieties. Jane points out the importance of maintaining genetic diversity in the genetic resources available. Only with these valuable seed varieties will ensure our ability to contribute to future genetic improvement addressing all the current and future problems, in terms of production, but also high quality standards demanded by consumers. Video transcript: "I’m really excited to have been asked to participate, to be involved. We’ve had GM cotton in the USA for a long time and really haven’t been too concerned about supply or access to non-GMO seed until it became apparent that it’s probably not going to be commercially available anymore. This availability is a problem, not only for organic cotton growers, but also cotton growers that have smaller margins, growers in dry land situations and like to use traditional cotton varieties became concerned about them being available. It wasn’t so much an issue, we have good public breeding programs; but how do we ensure that they would have access, not only to the seed, but access to future genetic improvements that would be made. Partnering with people who could produce these seeds in a way that is in line with the principal procedures of organic agriculture, preventing contamination, purity, quality, integrity; the secondary thing, to make sure that we are maintain genetic diversity in our genetic resources that we have available for breeding and making sure that we treat them and handle them in a way that they will contribute to future genetic improvements that deal with all of the problems, not just from the production side but also from the consumer side, and we make sure that the fiber that we’re providing has the high quality of standards that consumers demand."

• Release Date

  Sep 21, 2011

• Runtime

  02:07