Plant breeding has a visibility problem.
That’s one of the first things Hannah Jeffrey wants to tackle as she steps into her new role as chair of the National Association for Plant Breeding‘s communications committee.
The challenge isn’t a lack of innovation. It’s making sure people understand the work that’s already happening.
Jeffrey says one of her biggest priorities is creating a more consistent communications strategy that showcases both the science and the people behind it.
“What I’d like to see more of in the communications sector is more regularity,” she says. “I’d love to see there be an article released every month.”
She also hopes to broaden the conversation by creating opportunities for more voices to participate and by encouraging discussion around timely topics affecting the profession.
Those conversations are especially important because she believes one misunderstanding continues to dominate public perception.
GMOs
“The biggest misconception, I think, is GMOs. A lot of people (think of) GMOs as everything that hasn’t been conventionally bred,” she says. “But, also gene editing products and transgenic products, when really those are three different things.”
Jeffrey says plant breeders have an opportunity to bring more nuance into those discussions.
Conventional breeding has shaped agriculture for centuries, but newer technologies have overshadowed much of that history in the public conversation.
At the same time, she doesn’t shy away from difficult questions. She welcomes them.
People should ask questions about new technologies, she says, while also understanding that significant regulatory oversight already exists.
If she had only 60 seconds on national television to make the case for public plant breeding, she knows exactly where she’d start.
“We have to invest in plant breeding because we do magic,” she says.
Her example goes all the way back to teosinte, the ancestor of modern corn.
“Look at how we’ve taken this tiny little thing called teosinte and brought it into sweet corn and dent corn and all these different kinds of corn that feed the world,” she says.
The work happening in laboratories, greenhouses and research plots directly influences the future of food, sustainability and agricultural productivity.
“We’ve got a lot of really smart people that are able to make the appropriate decisions at the right time using the right resources, and we just need to be able to carry out this mission that we have, which is helping people by feeding them,” she says.
She says she won’t necessarily measure success by clicks, impressions or social media engagement. Rather, she hopes people begin reaching out because they finally understand what plant breeders do. She wants people to see why their work matters and believes that may be the most important metric of all.
