b"time, I just wanted to get a job aftercanola genetic base. Van really built graduation, and there werent reallyour canola breeding effort in Canada a lot of plant breeding positions avail- by hiring some great scientists and able in Ontario at that time. Canolamentoring many young ones. He was really expanding in Westernwas always giving them just enough Canada, so it gave me an opportunityinput to help them, but never got in to start my career. their way.That career began in the 1990s atIn 2018 Ripley arrived at Nuseed Aventis CropScience in Saskatoon,as the North American Canola R&D where he worked as a canola breederLead. running a full breeding programVan not only has tremendous sci-for development of Liberty resist- ence knowledge, but he also under-ant canola varieties. He workedstands the marketplace. That can be a closely with Agriculture and Agri- Nuseed's Roger Rotariu has worked with Vanrare combination, knowing what both Food Canada (AAFC) researchersRipley for several years. growers need and what the end user to develop and introduce the firstwants. He has a complete view of the Liberty resistant variety, Innovator, toand introduce excellent products likecanola industry and how as a breeder the market in 1995. that. you can combine all the attributes Thats my top memory of workingIn 2006 he arrived at Dowthat are required by growers and end in this industry. That team involvedAgroSciences, helping developusers and commodity traders and some very well-known breeders likeNexera hybrids. He produced the firsttry and get them into that one single the late Gerhard Rakow from AAFC.clubroot resistant Clearfield hybridplant, says Roger Rotariu, North Herbicide tolerant canola really wasinto the market. American marketing lead for Nuseed. a game changer for the industry. ItWhat I was able to do there reallyAs he eyes retirement, Ripley has really allowed for the expansion ofrepresented significant improvementstaken to expanding his breeding rep-the industry and also changed thein yield performance of high oleicertoire beyond oilseeds and into the way agriculture is being done inlow-linolenic material and allowedrealm of hot pepper breeding. As a Western Canada, Ripley says.the company to grow their acreagehobby, hes attempting to breed early-In 2001 he would move on to theand market share. We showed thatseason hot chili peppers adapted to AAFC Saskatoon Research Centre,just because something is high oleicWestern Canada.working to develop hybrid Brassicalow-linolenic doesnt mean that youThat shows Vans vision for both juncea canola germplasm for thenecessarily have to give up on perfor- the science and the market. I keep Canadian market and initiating amance compared to traditional fattyteasing him that I want in on his program to develop high oil/highacid profile canola. side project, because Canadians love glucosinolate B. juncea for the bio- According to Steve Thompson,hot peppers but its so hard to grow diesel market. who served as plant breeding andthem in the West. If he succeeds it We were successful in gettinggenetics leader for the companyscould lead to a whole new industry, the Ogura pollination control systemseed division at the time, RipleysRotariu adds.into our germplasm, which was a bigapproach to plant breeding at Dow deal, he says. was likely the most scientific he hadBest is Yet to ComeOgura cytoplasmic male sterilityever seen. Despite the strides made in canola has been used to develop high-yield- Van was at the absolute top ofbreeding, Ripley says the best is yet ing hybrids in regular commodityhis game in terms of not only canolato come as the crop evolves.canola, and was incorporated intobreeding but as a scientist in general.We are very much at the early B. juncea with great success. TheA lot of plant breeders tend to getstages with canola in terms of its Ogura system has since been usedtheir kudos and accomplishmentspotential. When you look at it, to develop mustard quality junceadocumented through plant protectionhybrids really have not been in the hybrids at AAFC.certificates and sometimes patents,marketplace for that long. As we Even though I didnt personallybut not so much scientific journalcontinue breeding hybrids and better accomplish the introduction of thosearticles. If you look at Vans CV, youllunderstand the drivers of heterosis, commercial mustard hybrids, I dosee quite the extensive list of scien- a big priority is going to be a signifi-feel that it was an accomplishmenttific journal articles, Thompson says.cant ongoing increase in yield, he to get the system into that speciesHes very involved in things likesays. so that other breeders could use itusing wild relatives to improve theThe other thing I think thats 14GERMINATION.CAMARCH 2021"