This is Part 2 of our story on rebuilding Canada’s breeding backbone. Part 1 can be found here.
Canada isn’t the only country wrestling with how to sustain public breeding.
During a six-week Nuffield scholarship, Ontario’s Lauren Benoit studied Australia’s Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), widely regarded as one of the most successful producer-government research partnerships in the world. She now serves as a technical solutions agronomist with Bayer Crop Science.
Funded through a 0.9% farm-gate checkoff, matched 50% by government, GRDC commands a massive $200 million annual budget.
“Academics follow money, and that was exactly what they did,” Benoit says. “You had an academic environment very geared towards what farmers wanted.”
But she’s quick to warn: Canada can’t simply copy the model.
Australia’s system has weakened its certified seed industry, reduced incentives to breed for non-grain uses and depends on a relatively uniform production environment — something Canada does not have.
Benoit also highlights the U.S. Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance — formed in the early 2010s when the sector faced looming restrictive climate policies.
The secret to its success wasn’t money. It was process.
A skilled, third-party facilitation agency helped competing agricultural groups find common ground. Eight major organizations now lead the alliance, with 120 more signed on.
The result? U.S. agriculture avoided the restrictive climate regulations that hit other industries hard — an impressive case study in alignment.
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