Founder, Steve Apfelbaum, presenting at the Plant Breeding Innovation Showcase
From the presentation
"How do we ensure genotypic and phenotypic diversity of wild harvested seed as we engage in commercial production of these North American native perennial plant species"? To define this in the context of normal agricultural production, this core question, derives antithetical thinking to what has been done with virtually all cultivated crops. We seek genetic diversity. Most crop production seeks homogenization and simplification, and by design, this restricts genetic diversity of the crop plant species. We seek a genome that retains the tens of thousands of years of evolutionary adaptations, and thus is not intentionally bred with a selective focus on yield, size, or some value proposition so very commonly used in commercial plant breeding. We don’t really care about the many typical traits of the conventional crop plant breeding systems. We do not want the protection of the genetic diversity to suffer from the inherent selective process of commercial production.
We invite you to watch the recorded presentation and read the full paper.
