b'EDITORS MESSAGEALL IN ONE LIFETIME!ppm, whereas this year (2021) it will bedevelopment which will be unhindered around 415 ppm, an almost 1/3 increase.by distance, language, or time. The year And while researching the topic I came2020, with its endless zoom and teams to the shocking revelation that the lastmeetings, already gave us a head start in time that we reached a concentration asthat direction. high as 300 ppm CO2 on our planet, it wasUnfortunately, there are also some 300,000 years ago! worrisome extrapolations about our lives But on the flip side, there are all thein the next 50 years. The sad prediction wonderful innovations that have madeis that the divide between the haves and our lives so much easier. The past fivehave-nots will grow. A privileged few will decades saw the arrival of ATMs, electriccontinue to amass the economic, health cars, fiberglass optics, laser technologies,and educational benefits. Also, it is highly robotics, DNA testing, solar energy, barimaginable that a powerful elite will codes & scanners, the birth control pill,continue to try and perhaps manage to bypass operations, biofuel, mobile tele- control the internet. Obviously, they will phones, GPS, online shopping, MRI anduse it to manipulate the messaging, with many, many more. I bet many of us can nosome dangerous precedents already set longer imagine life without these marvelsat recent elections. Marcel Bruins of innovation.And although Perseverance landed Also, on the seed and plant breed- safely on Mars, it remains an uninhabit-T owards the end of last year, Iing side, R&D did not stand still. Duringable planet. So, lets not forget there is, received an invitation to attendthe past 50 years, society benefittedfor the moment, no planet B. This means the reunion of my primary school,from the arrival of seed coating & prim- that our future is inextricably linked to in a couple of months from now. It hading, systemic crop protection products,the future of the planet we live on. If we been almost 50 years since I left thatDNA engineering and GM crops, markerwant to continue to enjoy it, we will need small village school and continued myassisted breeding and selection, genometo overcome some of the most daunt-education in the next big city, at a one- editing, microbials and biostimulants anding challenges of a global scale that our hour bike ride from home. And while Imany more. And dont forget, all theseplanet has seen, ranging from climate reminisced about the good memories ofchanges happened in just one lifetime!change and food scarcity, to growing pop-a blissful youth and doubted whetherIt was at this point that I started toulations and changes in demand. We will the reunion now in corona-times wouldlook ahead at the next 50 years to seeneed to make better use of resources, new actually take place, I immediately realizedwhat was coming. Safe to say we willtools, and new technologies. how much our world had changed in thesee many more changes. On the positiveI feel very fortunate to be working past 50 years.side, it is likely that we will live longerin the plant breeding and seed sector, First, there are the BIG (and perhapsand feel better. And there will be manywhich fearlessly continues to play a cru-scary) numbers: the year I was born, theinternet-based technologies that will helpcial role in mitigating these challenges. global population stood at 3.2 billion. Inus with that.At the core of the solution is innovation in 2020 it reached 7.8 billion: it had moreAt the same time, progress in scienceagriculture, which will ensure long-term than doubled. The little village where Iwill continue to blur the line betweenagricultural productivity, rural develop-grew up, now has a lot less inhabitants,human and machine. We are alreadyment, and environmental sustainability. as families have moved to larger cities.seeing a movement towards a worldAnd once I finally kick the bucket, at least Fewer families meant fewer children,where technologies based on artificialIll go down with the feeling that we tried and a few years back, the school whereintelligence will gradually take over repet- to make positive changes to the world I learned to read & write had to close itsitive, dangerous, and physically demand- around us. We all did, in this marvellous doors. This can also be seen on a biggering activities, and that should leave ussector! scale: in those same 50 years, the globalhumans with more time for leisure. urban population went up from 35 to 56Obviously in such a fully networkedMarcel Bruinsper cent. When I was born (1964), the car- world it will create more opportunitieseditorial director, European Seedbon-dioxide in the atmosphere was 319for global cooperation and communitymbruins@seedworldgroup.com4IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'