b'at the seed system as a whole, because in order to develop a vision for the seedWHAT ARE THE 8 SRM TASK TEAMS?industry, you need to consider policy and implementation that might not necessarilyThe teams are assigned to a specific topic area and will put forth be within the specific scope of seed regu- recommendations for change in the following key areas:latory modernization. Variety registrationSeed standards and grade tablesSilver Lining Seed certificationWhile the pandemic delayed the SRM ini- Information (labelling and records)tiative by about a year, van Wyk says it hasSeed testing labsturned out to be a silver lining in terms ofSeed analysisfacilitating communications between the task teams. Common seedIt would not be practical or costImports and exportseffective for us to conduct all the working group and task team meetings in-person. If one potential boon came out of COVID its that meeting online is an efficient,online surveys, and web-based collaboration tools came along, our affordable, and effective way to get thingsapproach to this kind of a project was very different. Perhaps we would done. Given the massive scale of this pro- have started this work sooner if we had these tools at our disposal. Back ject, it would be extremely difficult, if notthen, we couldnt engage stakeholders to the same degree, or throughout impossible to deliver in person.the entire regulatory change process. Now, we literally can meet at any He says gone are the days of having totime, for as long as we want, we can survey in real time, and we can col-get everything done in hotel conferencelaborate in an ongoing basis in web-based workspaces. rooms. I look forward to when we can meet again in person, but we cant We have incredible tools we didntignore how the virtual world has enhanced our collaborative efficiencies. have 20 years ago. Before network confer- Well be holding fewer in-person meetings in the future, and I imagine encing tools like Zoom and GoToMeeting,we will savour the ones we do. 34GERMINATION.CAJULY 2021'