It also will increase the awareness amongst seed companies, seed distributors and growers, because honestly I was a bit astonished last year, when I was attending ASTA in January 2002, about the lack of awareness within the US seed industry about these forthcoming regulations.

It is good to remember where the demand for organically produced products, including the use of organic seeds, is coming from. This demand is coming from the consumer and the international organic movement.

Products derived from organic production are not better or worse than products derived from conventional seeds, but it has to do with the beliefs and feelings of the consumers about the production methods used (like eggs derived from a more industrialized production methods compared to eggs from free roaming chickens on the farm).

Having said that, it also means that one should be consistent in the application of the production of organic products from start to the finish. It is an integrated process and one should avoid tring to 'cut corners’, otherwise the credibility of the total (organic) product is at stake.

Going back to the question, from the point of view of the seed companies involved in the production of organic seeds the legislation still contains too many loopholes which make it possible to ‘cut corners’.

It is a big investment for a still very small organic vegetable seed market, and there is a real danger that the organic seed business will never achieve a minimum level required to make it economically viable if the regulations on the use of organic seeds are not becoming more strict in the near future.

From the point of view of the seed distributors, I do not see many problems at the moment, or it must be that the quantities sold are still very small in relation to the work that needs to be done.