Garth Hodges, vice president of BASF’s North American seed business, says one of his drivers is a need for continued innovation in seed. Named one of the Canadian seed sector’s most influential people back in 2018, Hodges answers our questions from his current home base in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Seed World (SW): What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received during your career?
Garth Hodges (GH): Throughout my career, I’ve received a lot of advice. The bad news is I’ve received a lot of advice! Twenty years ago, I had a manager named John Westridge. John taught me a very valuable lesson — at the time I thought it was the worst piece of advice, ever. “If you chase two rabbits, you won’t catch either of them.” I always thought if I can give John this long list of things, I can be really impressive. He kept saying relentlessly, what’s the most important one? What’s the one piece that’s really important, and then he’d say, and what have you done about it.
So, if I had to give advice, I think we as an industry have to choose where it is we want to focus. What’s the legacy that we as leaders are going to leave to the next generation? It’s the next generation that’s going to be the one that’s going to take all this new technology that’s out there, so how can we create an environment that’s exciting for that generation? I want to apply all of this learning to the seed business, to breeding and to innovation. It’s that little seed that has so much potential, and we need to generate that in the next generation as well.
SW: Tell us about what you’re doing with hybrid wheat.
GH: There’s a good reason why hybrid wheat has been called the stepchild. In the past, because it’s hard, it’s a challenge. It’s very much involved in trying to solve all the conundrums and all the difficult steps along the way. We’ve been investing a lot in germplasm and trying to understand breeding different hybridization systems. Now, we’re actually now going out to the field tomorrow to have a look at some of our seed production — seed production has always been a big challenge in hybrid wheat is. We’re actually facing every one of these big challenges in the hybrid wheat process so it’s exciting because in many cases, you’re actually breaking new ground and you’re doing something new.
SW: What excites you most about the seed industry?
GH: There’s so much for us to be excited about in the seed industry. We’re in a pretty awesome industry — just think about it. We’re living in a world where we’re making something, such as making food or fuel or fiber. We’re actually doing something for society. I cannot lie and say that the commodity prices are really exciting right now. It’s almost like society is saying thank you to our farmers and our growers. In addition, I think of innovation. When I started in 2002, it was a big deal for us to sequence the canola genome. But now that technology is routine, the leaps and bounds in innovation is amazing.
SW: Talk to us about some challenges in the industry.
GH: Canada is a large export country. Canada is really so dependent on its export markets that it’s almost as if the export markets are dictating what kind of technologies and innovations you can use. That’s problematic. Now, there are also macro challenges. We are so fragmented as an industry, but yet the challenge of societal and environmental acceptance is actually quite consolidated and unique. The question is how can we consolidate some of that? Another challenge I see is the societal challenges to the use of innovation. Think about the Green Deal in Europe. I really think that that’s something that the industry needs to think about.
