Designing the seeds of the future

Dr. Anfu Hou is a leading plant breeder. He works at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Research and Development Centre in Morden, Man.

Hou was born in China and his research took him through several countries before he settled in Morden, which is located just north of the U.S. border. Geography is not insignificant here. Hou and his team develop crop varieties specifically suited to grow and grow well in the unique soil and weather conditions in Manitoba and Western Canada.

To achieve this, plant breeders such as Hou draw from their extensive germ libraries, combining characteristics from seeds (or germs) from all over the world.

Whatever the crop, the perfect variety will likely contain traits from China, India, Argentina or all of these places and more. Or, traits from a completely different string of countries.

Hou has been instrumental in developing new varieties of navy and black beans with region-specific disease resistance. He is also working on breeding certain traits into azuki (or adzuki) and mung beans, so that farmers in Manitoba and possibly Western Canada can start producing them on a larger scale for consumption.

A strong agricultural sector is not protectionist, xenophobic or in any way secretive. A strong agricultural sector is transparent, adaptable and unified, and it recognizes that many of the crops we grow today originated elsewhere. In order to do this farming thing the best way possible, we must always be looking over the fence.

And in Canada and elsewhere in the world, the sector is doing just that.

The pillars that once stood on their own are crumbling in favour of a system that — whether it knows it or not — acknowledges the importance of diversity.

This sector, like many others, used to hold information close to its chest. Research reports were withheld or, at least, distributed to a limited audience. Groups would lobby on behalf of a singular interest, believing they were fighting others for a sliver of the market.

But what if the market itself could grow? What if working together meant the agricultural sector could grow the entire market, benefiting everyone as a result?

In early September, I had the opportunity to chat with Aprosoja, the association representing soybean and corn growers in Mato Grosso, Brazil.

The group is situated in a gorgeous, huge and relatively new building. It was built as a joint effort between multiple commodity groups that came to the realization that if they shared the same space and some of the same resources they could work more efficiently and effectively. They did this five years ago, and have nothing but positive things to say about the experience.

There’s a fear that when an industry talks of change, it is doing so because it is fighting for survival. That is not the case, in this instance.

Witnessing what I did in Brazil, it’s encouraging to know that agricultural sectors elsewhere in the world are also realizing that their slice of the pie is at risk if the sector as a whole is neglected.

The public has played a key role in this. Public trust and social license have directed the spotlight onto agriculture, putting pressure on the sector to be more transparent, more sustainable, more willing to listen and change.

For some, the fear of losing something irretrievable in the process is real and only exacerbates the fear many of us already have of change, in general.

But diversity and flux have always been a part of agriculture. Embracing the next steps in that evolution will be a global phenomenon.