Seed Biotechnology Center takes the Classroom to the Professionals – Seed Business 101
Seed Business 101 was created with input from industry executives to accelerate the careers of promising new employees. It offers invaluable insights and perspectives to employees of seed producers, seed dealers and companies offering products and services to the seed industry, including seed treatments, crop protection, seed enhancement and technology, machinery and equipment. The purpose of this course is to shorten the learning curve for new employees teaching them what every employee must know about the main functional areas of a seed company in order to perform optimally in the team as quickly as possible and avoid mistakes. The course is designed to focus on optimum operations of the five major functional areas of a seed company: Research and Development, Production, Operations, Sales and Marketing and Administration.
Participants will acquire a broad understanding of the major aspects of a seed company’s operations and cross-departmental knowledge of best practices for profitability. Case studies are designed to immerse participants in the decision-making roles in all five functional areas of a seed company.
Dates and locations for two new sessions planned for December 2011 and January 2012 will be announced soon. For more information contact Jeannette Martins, jmartins@ucdavis.edu or go to: http://sbc.ucdavis.edu/education/seed_business.html.
European Plant Breeding Second Class Starts October 2011
Applications are now being accepted for the second class of the European Plant Breeding Academy beginning in October of 2011. The integrated postgraduate program, which is not crop specific, teaches the fundamentals of plant breeding, genetics, and statistics through lectures, discussion, and field trips to public and private breeding programs. Employers appreciate the opportunity to provide their valued employees advanced training without disrupting their full-time employment. Participants will attend six 6-day sessions in five countries. The instructors are internationally recognized experts in plant breeding and seed technology. For more information on the UC Davis European Plant Breeding Academy or the Plant Breeding Academy in the United States visit http://pba.ucdavis.edu or contact Joy Patterson, jpatterson@ucdavis.edu
Journal explores Translational Seed Biology
Advances in seed biology are the focus of a just-released special issue of Plant Science. Co-edited by Professors Kent Bradford and John Harada, the issue explores topics discussed at the 2007 Plant Sciences symposium on “Translational Seed Biology: From Model Systems to Crop Improvement.” The symposium, which Bradford and Harada co-organized, brought together leading public and private sector scientists to discuss the advances in seed biology and identify the remaining challenges to be explored. Working with researchers involved in this event, Bradford and Harada have provided views from various aspects of the overall objective of the symposium – to learn fundamentally how seeds are formed, develop and fulfill their reproductive and conservation functions and how that knowledge can be translated into useful applications in agriculture. The co-editors would like to acknowledge the other members of the organizing committee for the symposium and members of USDA-CSREES Regional Research Project W-2168.
Biotechnology for Sustainability
Genetically engineered (GE) crops have been in commercial production since 1996 and much information is available regarding ways they are benefiting farmers and consumers. As global agriculture continues to be challenged to enhance sustainability and reduce pressures on land, water and fuel, studies are showing that GE crops will be one part of the solution. To date, research has been conducted on over 100 agricultural crops and many new promising traits have been identified. As part of a grant from the American Society of Plant Biologists, SBC has developed a website dedicated to the theme of Biotechnology for Sustainability. Here you will find information on the 5 most promising GE traits, recent peer-reviewed publications, and useful websites and opinion pieces on this topic. We hope this will provide a useful reference on how biotech traits are enhancing environmental sustainability.
Plant Breeding and Genomics Focus of New National Web Resource
As global food needs increase, so does the need for crops that can be efficiently and safely produced. Traditional plant breeding methods have served well in the past and breakthrough technologies are now available to aid this process. These breakthroughs include key information on the genetics, or “genomes” of crops. A group of researchers and educators from America’s land-grant universities, government agencies and industry, have banded together to create the first-ever internet resource aimed at quickly putting basic research on crop genomes into practice through plant breeding programs across the U.S. to more efficiently improve crops. The resource is a new online community housed at eXtension (pronounced E-extension), www.extension.org, at the www.extension.org/plant_breeding_genomics.
For more information contact Allen Van Deynze at: avandeynze@ucdavis.edu.
Roundup Ready Alfalfa Fully Deregulated
After much debate and three years conducting a court-ordered environmental impact statement (EIS), the USDA-APHIS fully deregulated Roundup Ready Alfalfa for a second time on January 27th, 2011. The SBC and University of California researchers Dan Putnam, Larry Teuber, Shannon Mueller and others played a major role by developing agronomic and gene flow data on the efficacy and management of this new technology. Results were published already in 2004 (Van Deynze et al 2004), prior to the initial deregulation. The SBC also collaborated with the above researchers to generate the gene flow data necessary for the environmental assessment and to organize a national conference that resulted in a publication that summarizes the biology of alfalfa with respect to gene flow (Van Deynze et al. 2008). Both publications were highly referenced in the EIS. The SBC also submitted science-based comments to APHIS during the EIS process and hosted several meetings to develop coexistence principles for alfalfa seed production.
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