(c) In many countries seed certification is a function of the federal government. International trade in certified seed with many of these countries will be facilitated because of the legal definitions at the national level. In addition these will provide a common base for intergovernmental communications on policy matters relating to seed certification. Eight million pounds of certified alfalfa seed worth over $4 million were exported between July 1, 1968, and April 30, 1969. In addition certified seed of several clovers and grasses were exported.

(d) The clarification of the definitions of certified seed will greatly simplify the administration of the Federal act with respect to regulating interstate commerce in certified seed.

There has been some concern expressed among seedmen and growers of certified seed that this amendment of the Federal Seed Act takes from the States the authority to establish seed certification standards and procedures and places this authority with the Secretary of Agriculture. Over a long period of years seed-certifying agencies working as members of the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies have developed minimum seed certification standards and procedures that are adequate to protect and maintain the genetic purity of crop varieties and be practical as well.

It is logical, and we expect the Secretary will find the present minimum genetic standards of this association adequate and will approve these as the minimum requirements to be made by official seed certifying agencies for certified seed moving in interstate commerce. If this is done the democratic process will be maintained, whereby each official certification agency and others interested in seed certification will have an opportunity to contribute to the establishment and changing of the standards and procedures. Each official seed certification agency may continue to establish its standards and procedures within the framework of the approved minimum standards. Higher requirements imposed by any official State seed certifying agency would also be eligible for approval under the bill.

Mr. Chairman, this is the conclusion of my formal statement. I overlooked one of the most important aspects of seed certification which I would like to add in the record if I may.

Senator ALLEN. Yes, sir; you will be given that opportunity.

Mr. SCOTT. The fact that seed certification is a voluntary program. I failed to mention that in the statement, that seed certification is a voluntary program.

Thank you for the opportunity to express the support of our association for the bill, S. 1836.

Senator ALLEN. You say the program is voluntary, but it will not be voluntary after the bill becomes law, will it?

Mr. SCOTT. Yes; it will still be voluntary, because a consumer does not have to purchase certified seed. Neither does a grower of seed need to certify. I mean it is voluntary in this respect.

Senator ALLEN. Yes; but I mean for a State agency to be able to issue a certification of seed, they would have to come up to the requirements, would they not?

Mr. SCOTT. This is true.

Senator ALLEN. It would cease to be voluntary them, would it not, getting certified seed?

Mr. SCOTT. Well, the voluntary aspect that I referred to is the fact that a producer of certified seed, I mean a producer of seed or a merchandiser of the seed or a consumer of seed has a voluntary source, whether he produces, deals in, or buys certified seed.

Senator ALLEN. True.

Mr. SCOTT. This is the aspect that I wanted to make clear.

Senator ALLEN. That would just be like a cattleman having registered cattle. He could either register them or not?

Mr. SCOTT. That is right.

Senator ALLEN. But if he registered them they would have to come up to certain standards, would they not?

Mr. SCOTT. This is true; yes.

Senator ALLEN. So actually it does not have too much of a voluntary nature if he has certified seed.

Mr. SCOTT. If he chooses to certify then it has to meet the standards. Senator ALLEN. Yes.

Mr. SCOTT. This is very true.

Senator ALLEN. Now apparently then in the organization, since you expect the Secretary to take the standards that you have set for the official seed certifying agencies, and make them the minimum, apparently you have not been able to get all of the State agencies to come up to that minimum on a voluntary basis, is that right?

Mr. SCOTT. There have been a few instances where State agencies have not complied with the minimum standards as we now have them developed.

Senator ALLEN. You have what, about 47?

Mr. ScoTT. 43.

Senator ALLEN. 43 agencies. Does that mean 43 States?
Mr. SCOTT. Yes.

Senator ALLEN. And some seven States then do not participate at all?

Mr. SCOTT. Well, there are two State agencies that are not members of our association, and to my knowledge then these 45 are the extent of the certifying agencies in the United States.

Senator ALLEN. Would there be one for Alaska say?

Mr. SCOTT. Yes; there is, and they are a member of our organization. Senator ALLEN. Alabama?

Mr. SCOTT. Yes; in good standing.

Senator ALLEN. Good. I guess that is at Auburn, is it not?

Mr. SCOTT. Yes.

Senator ALLEN. Auburn University. You say all but two or three do follow the minimum?

Mr. SCOTT. Yes.

Senator ALLEN. And the effect of this bill then would be to require these others, if they are to engage in seed certifying, to comply with the minimum requirements set by the Secretary?

Mr. SCOTT. This would be true of any certified seed moving in interstate commerce. They could still not comply.

Senator ALLEN. Yes.

Mr. SCOTT. If the seed was to be produced.

Senator ALLEN. I believe you testified about 60 percent of the seed though does move in interstate commerce?

Mr. SCOTT. This is our best estimate; yes.

Senator ALLEN. How much of this seed that is the subject of interstate commerce is exported? I see what you have here for alfalfa, but I am talking about the total of the 2 billion pounds.

Mr. SCOTT. I attempted to get figures on the amount of seed, in addition to alfalfa that is exported, and I was unable to obtain this. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Statistical Service has the records on alfalfa, but they do not have it on the other crops.

Senator ALLEN. Is any of that seed purchased, or is it all donated? Mr. SCOTT. Most of this is purchased. All the alfalfa I think probably all or at least a very high percent of alfalfa.

Senator ALLEN. Is it purchased by foreign interests, or is it purchased over here and then sent over there without consideration as part of the AID program?

Mr. SCOTT. No; this is the outside, this is outside the AID program. Senator ALLEN. Senator Bob Dole, of Kansas, was unable to be here. He has sent in a memorandum containing some brief comments as well as some suggested questions to propound to you, Mr. Scott. you do not object I would like to read these comments. As I say, it is in memorandum form here. And then I will call on you to comment on his questions or suggestions. It says:

If

The ground rules under this program may be good for some areas, not for others Each area may require a different certification program for crops such as alfalfa and red clover. Under these ground rules the needs of each territory would not be taken into consideration. Have you cleared this proposal with the state authorities in those areas?

Mr. SCOTT. Mr. Chairman, I am not quite sure who he means by State authorities. The ground rules, the procedures, and the standards that are developed have been developed by a committee within our organization. We call these commodity committees. They have membership from all sections of the country. We also have research people generally on the committees, and so the standards and the procedures as they are developed by the commodity committee have the thinking of the different sections of the country as well as scientific counsel and advice, and so we feel that we do do this.

Senator ALLEN. You have the same rules for all crops or would you have different rules for different crops?

Mr. SCOTT. We have different rules for different crops; yes, sir. Senator ALLEN. So alfalfa and red clover might have one set of rules or requirements or standards, and wheat might have something else?

Mr. SCOTT. Yes; this is true.

Senator ALLEN. Would that be because of the more likelihood of one type of seed being contaminated by pollen in the air from another field?

Mr. SCOTT. Yes. As the previous witness pointed out, research in cross-pollinated crops such as alfalfa, which is a good example, has shown that this changes quite rapidly, particularly when it is produced as we say outside the area of adaptation. When we take it to a mild climate to increase seed, the chances for it changing becomes quite great.

In the case of a self-fertilized crop, like wheat, for instance, the chances of change are less, because this is a naturally self-pollinated crop. The chance about the only way that it can change genetically is their admixture.

Then I would point out that in today's modern agriculture, even a self-fertilized crop changes more rapidly than you might think, because we handle the crop on a mass production basis with large equipment. Very few farmers any more have a one variety farm, so these are subject really to mixtures.

There have been we call them seed surveys, quite a few of these run over the country. For instance, this is where a team of people go out and take samples of the seed that the farmers actually plant. We call them drill box surveys because they take them out of the drill box or out of the planter box, not actually out of the box, but out of the seed that he has planted.

For instance, one that was conducted in Illinois recently, soybeans are a self-fertilized crop, and in 1963 a disease resistant strain of Harasoy 63 beans was released. The survey was conducted in 1965, and surprisingly enough there was a fairly high percentage of the seed that was picked up that the farmer said was Harasoy 63 that

was not.

When it was run through the disease test the plants were not resistant, so this is an illustration of how rapidly a self-pollinated crop can become contaminated.

Senator ALLEN. Have you cleared the matter of the bill with your various member agencies?

Mr. SCOTT. We have in a board meeting, in an association meeting in Dallas last February discussed the bill, and as was pointed out by the previous witness, there is at least one dissenter, but by far the majority are in favor of the bill and see the advantages of the bill.

Senator ALLEN. Do you recall specifically the attitude of the Kansas agency?

Mr. SCOTT. I do not recall; no. I do not remember what their attitude was. I am sorry.

Senator ALLEN. But you do have different requirements for the different crops?

Mr. SCOTT. Oh, yes, yes; isolation requirements I think we could best illustrate with this, in a cross-pollinated crop such as alfalfa. I do not recall the specific standard, but these should be separated by 30 rods or some such distance. A self-fertilized crop or a self-pollinated crop such as a small grain, wheat, for instance, the isolation need be only wide enough to prevent admixtures at the time of planting and during the time of harvesting, so that you do not unconsciously get the combine over into the other variety.

Senator ALLEN. Have you advised the various member agencies of the pendency of the bill?

Mr. Scort. Yes, sir.

Senator ALLEN. You have had no protests from Kansas then?
Mr. SCOTT. No.

Senator ALLEN. Actually then, I am trying to identify the bill; actually this is your bill, is it not?

Mr. SCOTT. Yes; this is our bill. Yes, sir.

Senator ALLEN. Senator Dole also wanted this question asked:

How do you propose to set up safeguards that will insure that all production areas of an item have equal chance to set up their needed standards?

Mr. SCOTT. This we propose to do through the commodity committee that I mentioned. We will adjust the membership to this. This is done at the present time really.

Senator ALLEN. As it could occur, a board that is set up by the Secretary of Agriculture might be biased toward certain areas in the seed certification procedure such as the size of the field, and so forth. Mr. SCOTT. Well, I think as the previous witness testified, we feel that the bill says that the Secretary will approve standards. We hope that the association will be the organization that develops the standards, and, if it is, then I do not think there is any question but that we will have all areas of the country and all interested parties participating in the establishment.

Senator ALLEN. It is not going to require any long, lengthy, or expensive survey on the part of the department, is it, as to what type of regulation should be set up?

Mr. SCOTT. No; I am sure it would not.

Senator ALLEN. The chances are they will accept your minimum standards.

Mr. SCOTT. We hope so.

Senator ALLEN. Continuing with Senator Dole's suggestions:

In one territory a size requirement for seed certification might be satisfactory while in another area, a different area requirement might be necessary.

Those things would be taken into consideration by your committee? Mr. SCOTT. Yes.

Senator ALLEN. Also he suggests that "safeguards would be needed so that all areas that produce are represented."

Mr. SCOTT. This is true.

Senator ALLEN. That would be the case?

Mr. SCOTT. Yes.

Senator ALLEN. I believe that is all, Mr. Scott. Thank you very much.

Mr. SCOTT. Thank you.

Senator ALLEN. Mr. Reuben L. Johnson has not come in, has he? (No response.)

Senator ALLEN. Mr. Albert R. Russell, executive vice president, National Cotton Council, Memphis, Tenn., has sent word that he wishes to file a statement, and that will be filed and made a part of the record.

(The statement is as follows:)

STATEMENT OF ALBERT R. RUSSELL, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL COTTON COUNCIL OF AMERICA, MEMPHIS, TENN.

My name is Albert R. Russell. I am executive vice president of the National Cotton Council of America, with headquarters in Memphis, Tenn. The council is the central organization of the raw cotton industry, representing producers, ginners, crushers, merchants, warehousemen, cooperatives, and manufacturers. The council supports S. 1836 which would amend the Federal Seed Act whereby uniform standards and procedures can be established to assure the genetic purity and the identity of seed certified throughout the various states.

For many years now, the council has officially recognized the necessity for improving varieties and the quality of cotton planting seed and has supported efforts to improve variety testing and the breeding, release, and distribution of cotton planting seed.

Nothing could be more fundamental to the future welfare of cotton than higher quality planting seed. In its longstanding battle against manmade fibers, cotton must compete in terms of quality and price. And, high quality planting seed is one of the vital keys to strengthen cotton's competitive position in both of these areas. Such seed are essential to securing better stands of vigorous growing plants and they are of crucial importance to the production of higher yields for

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