United States
May, 2009
Source:
Eurofins STA Today, May 2009
Author: Linda Barbosa
Reprinted with permission of the author
For many years there have been two
seed testing organizations in the United States, the
Association of Official Seed
Analysts (AOSA) and the
Society of Commercial
Seed Technologists (SCST). The AOSA is composed of seed
analysts from government and university labs and the SCST is
composed of analysts from private seed companies and private
testing labs. Up until recently the AOSA was the only one
authorized to accept new seed testing methods.
There is now a proposal for consolidating the AOSA and the SCST
into one seed testing organization.
The following is a short version of the proposal prepared by the
Consolidation Task Force lead by Loren Wiesner, Retired Research
Leader, ARS-USDA
Vision: To serve
agriculture in the area of seed testing
Mission: To serve the seed industry by maintaining and
encouraging the highest professional standards and proficiency
among its members and promoting uniform seed testing standards
through accreditation, research and method development and
maintaining and updating the Rules for Seed Testing.
The Association will achieve this mission by:
- Educating and accrediting
seed technologists
- Develop standardized seed
testing methods and maintaining them in the Rules for
Testing Seed
- Producing and distributing
educational materials for seed technologists
- Provide a forum for the
exchange of ideas between seed technologists, researchers
and the greater seed industry
Benefits to AOSA and SCST
Members:
- Provides one
organization that represents all seed
technologists and seed researchers
- Indicates solidarity
to the seed industry, North America and our
international colleagues
- Reduce duplication in
association administration, leadership committee work
and is a more efficient use of financial resources
- Enhances the ability
to determine seed research needs and conduct research to
improve seed testing evaluations through improved
communications
- Better able to develop
standardized seed testing methods
Benefits to the Seed Industry
- Streamline
communications when the industry needs to
communicate concerning their seed testing needs
- Provide the seed
industry with standardized uniform seed evaluation
methods
- Continued high
quality research that meets their seed evaluation
needs
- Allow for one
accreditation system for all of the seed
technologists
- A standardized and
uniform set of Rules for use in seed quality
assessment, seed labeling, seed law enforcement and
certification of seed will be developed by one
organization
Source:
Eurofins STA Today, May 2009 |
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