Speaker: Charlie Brummer, Director of the Plant Breeding Center and a Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis.
Once crops have been domesticated, astute farmers selected useful, interesting, or valuable traits and saved seed across generations that produced the types of plants they desired. Scientific plant breeding accelerated the modification of crops, usually for economically important traits. Plant improvement has benefited from the free exchange of germplasm among breeders, farmers, gardeners, and others, but today, various restrictions on the free use of germplasm have been implemented nationally and internationally.
Charlie discussed these subjects, touching on how breeding can be done today, who can use what germplasm for which purpose, and how we can reclaim a seed commons, at least in some ways.
Educational Resources from Seminar