Training and Skills
1) What skills do you believe plant breeders of the future will need? Please explain the role you see
the Land Grant University playing in ensuring that plant breeders of the future will have those
necessary skills.
2) Dr. Peter Boches - As a recent graduate of OSU, do you believe your graduate training as a plant
breeder through the university system was useful/necessary for the work you currently do?
3) Dr. Carol Deppe - While listening to a panel on vegetable breeding, a woman who received her
PhD in genetics and is currently breeding for a private seed company said that she almost never
uses the knowledge gained from her degree, and that anyone who has eyes can be a plant
breeder. How would you respond to this? Are we over-training graduate students in the
university system for a task that could be done by anyone “who has eyes” with minimal
training?
Private v. Public sectors
1) Dr. Steve Knapp - As a breeder for the private industry, do you feel you have more or less
freedom than a public sector breeder?
2) Dr. Kevin Smith - In your experience working/collaborating with universities outside of the
United States (like your collaboration with the Universidad de la Republica in Uruguay), have
you noticed positive differences in how the public universities interact with either gov’t agencies
or private companies. Follow up: If so, would it be possible to implement those interactions here
in the United States?
3) Dr. Steve Knapp - Historically, much of the world has depended on spillovers from R&D
investments in wealthier countries. With agricultural R&D declining in the wealthy countries, the
world’s poorest countries have fallen even farther behind, particularly in an era of increasingly
proprietary and local research emphases. How can private industry contribute more effectively
than the public sector to fill this vital humanitarian benefit from agricultural R&D?
Funding
1) Question for a university panelist or an organic grower - Today, it seems almost inevitable that
all of the efforts of our ancestors to promote diversity and local adaptation of plants will be lost
to a monocropping of our planet. From my perspective, it looks like our only hope for continued
breeding for non-lucrative diversity lies upon the shoulders of the independent breeders and
public universities. I would like to know if you have any ideas on how these programs can be
funded? Have you had any success in finding funds for such breeding ?
2) How do you see public vs. private funding of graduate student research at Land Grant
Universities shaping the future of plant breeding?
3) With more funding for University research coming from the private sector, what opportunities
and funding sources are out there to conduct farmer driven plant breeding work at the
University?
Technology
1) Dr. Robbie Waugh - Genomics and informatics has sped up breeding technology tremendously
with systems such as Marker Assisted Selection. Although this technology is extremely beneficial
to our field, I am concerned that breeders are losing touch with their material in the field. How
can breeders stay on the forefront of technology, while also maintaining important field
technique.
University Roles
1) Dr. Alan Kapuler - In several interviews in the past few years, you state that there is a problem
with the way of breeding now, and that in the past “...schools would hire people interested to
make crops for the local area so the local self sufficiency was enhanced, and so there was more
diversity in the local food system. That’s broken down." Where do you see the root of this
problem? Also, in today's world, what are universities' and public sector roles in breeding, in
your opinion?
2) Dr. Steve Knapp - Monsanto's business model invests heavily in research and development, and
recoups the expenses through the use and enforcement of biological patents. Do you think
universities such as OSU would benefit from adopting this model to fund breeding programs?
Other
1) Dr. Alan Kapuler or Dr. Carol Deppe - We keep hearing that the population is growing and how
big of a challenge it is going to be in the future to feed the planet. How large of a role could the
independent breeder potentially play in regards to organic farming and global food security?