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Canada’s top plant breeders’ rights official is stepping onto the global stage — and he’s bringing a clear message about innovation with him. Anthony Parker, commissioner of Canada’s Plant Breeders’ Rights Office, has been named the new president of UPOV, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. For Parker, the role is both a personal milestone and a chance to reinforce the importance of intellectual property in agriculture at a time of rapid technological change. UPOV’s core mission — promoting plant variety protection — remains central to driving investment, competition and food security, Parker says. But its longevity comes from its ability to evolve alongside science. From genetic modification to gene editing, the organization continually updates its frameworks to reflect new realities while maintaining incentives for innovation. That adaptability is already showing results in Canada. Strengthened plant breeders’ rights and policy changes, such as accepting foreign data, have helped unlock significant growth in sectors like greenhouse vegetables, where applications for new varieties have surged dramatically. Still, challenges remain. One of the biggest is balancing long-standing farm practices, like saving seed, with the need to ensure breeders are fairly compensated. Parker emphasizes that sustainable innovation depends on shifting mindsets and building systems that reward investment from both public and private sectors. Change, however, can’t be rushed. Parker stresses that meaningful progress requires collaboration across producers, breeders and policymakers — and the patience to get it right. In the end, the future of agricultural innovation won’t be shaped by science alone, but by the policies, incentives and shared understanding that support it.
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Producing more with less isn't a slogan for Andrew Campbell — it's how he runs his dairy operation. And it depends entirely on research staying in Canada. Andrew Campbell is a dairy farmer in Middlesex County, Southern Ontario. He's proud of what he produces. And he's clear-eyed about what makes it possible. In Episode 6 of On the Brink, Campbell makes the case that producing more with less — the defining challenge of modern Canadian agriculture — doesn't happen without sustained investment in plant breeding research done here, for Canadian conditions. The feed his herd depends on. The efficiency gains he's built his operation around. The ability to do more on the same acres with a smaller environmental footprint. All of it traces back to research. And when that research moves overseas, the gains don't follow. Short growing seasons. Regional disease pressures. Climate realities that imported varieties aren't built for. Canadian agriculture runs on Canadian conditions — and the science supporting it needs to stay here. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🌱 ON THE BRINK — New episode every Wednesday Farmers, breeders, researchers, and industry voices talking honestly about the future of Canadian crop innovation. No fluff. Just the people doing the work and what's at stake if it stops. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📺 MORE EPISODES Ep. 3 — Why Invest in Canada's Seed Future: https://www.seedworld.com/canada/on-the-brink/2026/03/25/episode-3-why-invest-in-canadas-seed-future/ Ep. 4 — The End of the Status Quo: https://www.seedworld.com/canada/on-the-brink/2026/04/01/on-the-brink-episode-4-the-end-of-the-status-quo/ Ep. 5 — An Investment in Every Canadian: https://www.seedworld.com/canada/on-the-brink/2026/04/08/an-investment-in-every-canadian-on-the-brink-episode-5/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📰 READ THE FULL ARTICLE https://www.seedworld.com/canada/on-the-brink/2026/04/15/producing-more-with-less-on-the-brink-episode-6/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 SUBSCRIBE for a new episode every Wednesday 👍 Like and share to help grow the conversation ✉️ Nominate a voice for the series: OnTheBrink@seedworldgroup.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #ProducingMoreWithLess #CanadianAgriculture #PlantBreeding #SeedWorld #OnTheBrink #CropResearch #FoodSecurity #DairyFarming #CanadianFarmer #AgResearch #SeedInvestment #FarmEfficiency 📌 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more insights on the latest in the seed industry!     📌 About Seed World Group (SWG): Seed World Group is a handpicked team of strategists, storytellers and marketers. We’ve been serving the seed industry since 1991 and today have staff spread across North America Europe, LATAM and beyond. With our two divisions — Seed World CREATE and Seed World Media – we are able to deliver highly focused consulting, strategic solutions, digital tools and content shared via a suite of global seed sector media channels. Our goal is to connect people to people across the seed sector, locally, regionally and globally. Interested in learning more? Visit www.seedworldgroup.com. ▬ Website & Social Media ▬▬▬▬▬ ► Website: https://seedworldgroup.com/ ► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seedworldgroup ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/seedworldgroup ► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeedWorldGroup
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At a time of growing economic and environmental uncertainty, the conversation around plant breeding and research often focuses on farmers. In fact, their impact reaches much further. From the consistency of grocery prices to the reliability of everyday products, investment in agriculture shapes outcomes for consumers across Canada. In Episode 5 of On the Brink, Gerald Girard, director of barley procurement at Malteurop, brings that connection into focus. Speaking from the perspective of the value chain, he explores how research and plant breeding contribute to stability, from consistent barley quality to predictable supply, even in challenging conditions. Watch Episode 5: An Investment in Every Canadian On the Brink is a cross-country video series exploring the future of plant breeding in Canada. Each week, we feature voices from across the industry to build an ongoing, multi-perspective, open conversation about innovation and long-term investment in Canadian agriculture. Join the conversation: • Subscribe so you don’t miss upcoming episodes • Share and engage across LinkedIn, Instagram, X, and Facebook • Nominate yourself or someone you know to be featured: OnTheBrink@seedworldgroup.com #seed #seeds #seeding #seedworld #agriculture #seedtesting #agriculturetechnology #agricultureeducation #agricultureproduct #seedindustry #seedsector #farming #agribusiness 📌 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more insights on the latest in the seed industry!   📌   📌 About Seed World Group (SWG): Seed World Group is a handpicked team of strategists, storytellers and marketers. We’ve been serving the seed industry since 1991 and today have staff spread across North America Europe, LATAM and beyond. With our two divisions — Seed World CREATE and Seed World Media – we are able to deliver highly focused consulting, strategic solutions, digital tools and content shared via a suite of global seed sector media channels. Our goal is to connect people to people across the seed sector, locally, regionally and globally. Interested in learning more? Visit www.seedworldgroup.com. ▬ Website & Social Media ▬▬▬▬▬ ► Website: https://seedworldgroup.com/ ► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seedworldgroup ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/seedworldgroup ► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeedWorldGroup
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#seed #seeds #seeding #seedworld #agriculture #seedtesting #agriculturetechnology #agricultureeducation #agricultureproduct #seedindustry #seedsector #farming #agribusiness 📌 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more insights on the latest in the seed industry!   📌   📌 About Seed World Group (SWG): Seed World Group is a handpicked team of strategists, storytellers and marketers. We’ve been serving the seed industry since 1991 and today have staff spread across North America Europe, LATAM and beyond. With our two divisions — Seed World CREATE and Seed World Media – we are able to deliver highly focused consulting, strategic solutions, digital tools and content shared via a suite of global seed sector media channels. Our goal is to connect people to people across the seed sector, locally, regionally and globally. Interested in learning more? Visit www.seedworldgroup.com. ▬ Website & Social Media ▬▬▬▬▬ ► Website: https://seedworldgroup.com/ ► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seedworldgroup ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/seedworldgroup ► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeedWorldGroup
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What happens when the plant breeding status quo isn’t an option anymore? In a grocery store aisle, Doug Miller of the Canadian Seed Growers Association connects a simple truth to a much bigger question: nine out of ten bites of food start with seed. But what happens when the system behind those seeds begins to shift? Recent federal cuts have led to the closure of key research facilities across Canada. The move could have far-reaching consequences for plant breeding, variety testing and the future productivity of Canadian farms. In Episode 4 of On the Brink, the conversation turns from debate to direction. If public and private roles must evolve, what does the next model look like? And what will it take to move from what worked to what’s needed now? Watch Episode 4: End of the Status Quo On the Brink is a cross-country video series exploring the future of plant breeding in Canada. Each week, we feature voices from across the industry to build an ongoing, multi-perspective, open conversation about innovation and long-term investment in Canadian agriculture. Join the conversation: • Subscribe so you don’t miss upcoming episodes • Share and engage across LinkedIn, Instagram, X, and Facebook • Nominate yourself or someone you know to be featured: OnTheBrink@seedworldgroup.com #seed #seeds #seeding #seedworld #agriculture #seedtesting #agriculturetechnology #agricultureeducation #agricultureproduct #seedindustry #seedsector #farming #agribusiness 📌 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more insights on the latest in the seed industry!   📌   📌 About Seed World Group (SWG): Seed World Group is a handpicked team of strategists, storytellers and marketers. We’ve been serving the seed industry since 1991 and today have staff spread across North America Europe, LATAM and beyond. With our two divisions — Seed World CREATE and Seed World Media – we are able to deliver highly focused consulting, strategic solutions, digital tools and content shared via a suite of global seed sector media channels. Our goal is to connect people to people across the seed sector, locally, regionally and globally. Interested in learning more? Visit www.seedworldgroup.com. ▬ Website & Social Media ▬▬▬▬▬ ► Website: https://seedworldgroup.com/ ► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seedworldgroup ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/seedworldgroup ► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeedWorldGroup
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FEATURES

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Innovation in Agriculture Depends on Plant Breeders’ Rights, Says UPOV President

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Producing More With Less: On the Brink Episode 6

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Why the Fertilizer Crisis Won’t End When the Iran War Does

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An Investment In Every Canadian: On the Brink Episode 5

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The End of the Status Quo: On the Brink Episode 4

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Why Invest in Canada’s Seed Future: On the Brink Episode 3

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EXCLUSIVES

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Sustainability is Already Built Into Canadian Farming

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Genetic Markers – Why Nick Stratford’s Blood Type Might be ‘P’ For Policy

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Hot Takes: 10 Years to Breed, Five Years to Fund

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Get Ready to Meet the Future of Seed Innovation

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One-Word Answers That Define 60 Years of Chin Ridge Seeds

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Missed World Seed Congress? Here’s What Everyone’s Still Talking About. 

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C-SUITE

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On the Spot – Doug Says It Straight: What Canada’s Seed System Really Needs

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Rethinking Seed: In Conversation with Brent Collins

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Goverstry or Bust

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Policy, But Make It Interesting: Lauren Comin Rises to the Challenge

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Public vs Private Plant Breeding: What’s the Middle Ground? 

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GLOBAL

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How KWS Is Creating Seeds For The Future

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Who Decides the Future of Europe’s Ag Sector?

MOST POPULAR

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Innovation in Agriculture Depends on Plant Breeders’ Rights, Says UPOV President

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Producing More With Less: On the Brink Episode 6

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An Investment In Every Canadian: On the Brink Episode 5

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Seed Innovation in Canada: The Funding Problem No One Can Ignore

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The End of the Status Quo: On the Brink Episode 4

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