The 2012 ASHS Annual Conference

Objective(s):
A discussion between stakeholders to help shape national thinking and action in moving forward.

A sustained supply of outstanding new crop cultivars is critical to U.S. and global food security.  Rural prosperity for growers of our crops is critical for economic and social sustainability of food security.  Environmental sustainability underlies all of these. 

Plant breeding now has over a century of research and technology development, much of it conducted by the U.S. federal /state partnership that includes NIFA and its predecessor agencies .  The coordinator and moderator propose to develop a workshop to engage our national conversation about what are the best ways to leverage existing research and technology, both classical and new, to develop critical knowledge and germplasm, as we go forward into an era where demands are increasing for public sector development of new cultivars.