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Dr. Gene HOOKSTRA
- ParaGen - USA |
June 2002 |
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What does the
seed industry look like today from your vantage point? |
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Good
question. The more things change the more they remain the
same. An old adage, but true. Over the past 20 years there
have been tremendous changes involving huge mergers,
acquisitions, name changes, consolidations, new technology,
etc., but one thing has remained constant: the desire and
impetus of people in the seed industry to provide products
that will feed the world and improve the quality of life
today. Not tomorrow but today.
The goals of feeding the world and
improving the quality of life have not changed but the rate of
development has changed dramatically. To keep up with the
increased rate of development, companies are continually
looking for improved methodologies, new and different
germplasm, and new technologies to attain their goals. We now
have the ability with current technologies to compress the
number of generations required to attain goals or to
introgress desired traits much faster than before. This is
where I see major changes in the seed industry today. It’s
still a relatively close knit community, but moving at a
faster pace than it used to. |
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