STATEMENT OF STANLEY F. ROLLIN, CHIEF, SEED BRANCH, GRAIN DIVISION, CONSUMER AND MARKETING SERVICE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Mr. ROLLIN. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, my name is Stanley F. Rollin, Chief of the Seed Branch, Grain Division, Consumer and Marketing Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. I appreciate the opportunity to present to you the Department's views concerning S. 1836. This bill would amend the Federal Seed Act to require approval by the Secretary of Agriculture of the standards and procedures of official seed certifying agencies governing the genetic purity and identity of the seed these agencies certify. At the present time the Federal Seed Act automatically recognizes the rules and regulations of individual official seed certifying agencies. The Department supports this bill, with minor changes in language which have been outlined in a report which has been forwarded to the committee. The Federal Seed Act (sec. 101(a)(25) and 102) presently provides that an officially authorized seed certifying agency need only determine that seed has met the agency's own rules and regulations on genetic purity to be "certified seed" in compliance with the act. There is no standard to govern what these rules and regulations shall be. Most officially recognized seed certifying agencies in the United States are members of the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies. Most official agencies have rules and regulations which comply with the association's recommendations. However, some agencies that are members and some that are not members have rules that do not comply. The association has no legal authority to require compliance with its recommendations. The result is that the term "certified seed" may have a different meaning when seed is certified in one State than when certified in another. This may vary from year to year. This can be misleading to the buyer. It encourages unfair competition in the marketplace. In speaking of certified seed we are referring only to the "genetic purity and identity" and not standards for germination, weed seed, or pure seed percentage of the kind determined solely in a laboratory. In referring to "genetic purity and identity" we are speaking of preserving the record of the "bloodlines" and the procedures that are necessary to insure that these bloodlines are not contaminated in the field and in harvesting, processing, and packing. The buyer then has official assurance of a pure variety of seed similar to papers on a registered purebred animal. For example, if scientific evidence and practical experience show that under most conditions a variety of a certain kind of seed will not maintain its genetic purity and identity if reproduced from seed more than three generations, that variety should not be permitted to be reproduced more than three generations and still be certified as genetically pure. The Department does not plan to enforce stricter standards than are presently recommended by the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies. We are primarily interested in seeing that all official certifying agencies meet at least the minimum standards recommended by this association so that the term "certified seed" will convey the same meaning to all buyers of such seed in the United States. The United States also would be in a stronger position in promoting the sale and acceptance of U.S. certified seed in foreign countries if this degree of uniformity were accomplished by passage of this bill. We could then assure foreign buyers that all seed certified in the United States met certain specified minimum standards of genetic purity and identity. Mr. CHAIRMAN, this completes my prepared statement. If you have questions, I shall be glad to respond to them. Senator ALLEN. Mr. Rollin, thank you very much for your testimony. There is a question or two that I would like to ask. Is this a Department bill? Mr. ROLLIN. No; it is not a Department bill. It was introduced by Senator Jordan, I believe, at the request of the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies. Senator ALLEN. In other words, the certifying agencies would continue to be State agencies but the Department would set up uniform standards to which they would adhere in certifying seed as being certified seed, is that correct? Mr. ROLLIN. Actually as I read the bill, the bill says that the Secretary shall approve the standards of each agency. I do not construe this as saying that the Secretary shall establish any standards. I read this as saying that he will review the standards of the State agency, and using the minimum standards of this association as a guide, he will then approve or disapprove the standards of the State agency. Senator ALLEN. He would require, of course, that they come up to a certain common level, would he not? Mr. ROLLIN. That is right. Senator ALLEN. And in that sense he would be prescribing the rules that they would have to adhere to? Mr. ROLLIN. I would say that he is going to use the standards of this association as a guide, and if they come above those minimums, then he would automatically approve the rules of each State association. Senator ALLEN. Some then could exceed the regulations that he might set, but none could come below? Mr. ROLLIN. That is right. Senator ALLEN. None below that standard or criteria? Mr. ROLLIN. In other words, one of these standards might have to do with isolation of the field, for instance, from another field of, say, alfalfa. Maybe the rules of the association say that they shall not be more than 10 rods or less than 10 rods apart, because of possible contamination of the two fields. Now it is easily understood that if it was 100 rods or a thousand rods or a thousand miles, this would be better, and therefore there is no intent to say it must be 10 rods from the other field. Senator ALLEN. Yes. Under the present setup then, you might have one set of standards in Alabama and an entirely different set in Iowa, each agency having its own standards? Mr. ROLLIN. You could have a variation in the standards, but none of them below this minimum. Senator ALLEN. I understand that. I am talking about at the present time. 32-106-69-2 Mr. ROLLIN. At the present time; yes. Mr. ROLLIN. There is considerable uniformity, I would say that most of the States follow the minimum standards of this association, but there are instances where they do not, and this is merely an attempt to bring everyone in line. Senator ALLEN. Does this bill have the approval of the certifying agencies of the various States? Mr. ROLLIN. Well, I could not speak for them. I think that they would have to speak for themselves. I had heard opposition to the bill from at least one State, and there have been questions raised by two other States, but I think they should testify themselves with respect to this. They may have been asked questions which may have been answered satisfactorily and maybe they would no longer be opposed. I would hestiate to answer for them. Senator ALLEN. The State agencies then do conform to the rules of the association of agencies, so to speak. They make a point of setting that forth, do they not, that they do comply with the present regulations? Mr. ROLLIN. I do not know whether they do or not. Senator ALLEN. I understood most of them did. Mr. ROLLIN. I believe most of them do comply with these minimum rules. Senator ALLEN. Just for my information, it has nothing to do with the bill itself, I was interested in your statement that, "for example, if scientific evidence and practical experience show that under most conditions a variety of a certain kind of seed will not maintain its genetic purity and identity if reproduced from seed more than three generations; that variety should not be permitted to be reproduced more than three generations and still be certified." As a practical matter how is it that at the end of three generations a particular seed would lose its genetic purity? Mr. ROLLIN. Well, there are many varieties of seed, particularly what are called the open pollinated varieties, which cross between plants, and they are made up of a conglomeration of characteristics. If you start out with a certain set of characteristics, and you continue to replant this seed and continue to let it cross, it will change over a period of years, so that at the end of a number of years, depending on the variety and the crop, it will gradually change so that it will not be what you started out with. Therefore, it is general practice, not only because of open pollination but because of contamination in the handling of the seed in the warehouse and where there may be physical admixtures, and it is good farming practice which is generally accepted, that you will go back to the certified seed or the original stock periodically and replenish your supply or you will find yourself with something different than you intended to plant-that which you started out with. Senator ALLEN. Would that be 3 crop years? Is that what you mean? Mr. ROLLIN. Well, it may vary with respect to different crops, depending on whether they are self-pollinated. Senator ALLEN. Yes. Mr. ROLLIN. Or open pollinated; but generally speaking the certifying agencies restrict their certifying to three generations. Senator ALLEN. Thank you very much, Mr. Rollin. We appreciate your testimony. Mr. Walter O. Scott, president of the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies, Urbana, Ill. STATEMENT OF WALTER 0. SCOTT, PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION OF OFFICIAL SEED CERTIFYING AGENCIES, URBANA, ILL. Mr. SCOTT. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am Walter O. Scott, of Urbana, Ill., president of the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies. As the name implies, this is an organization of certifying agencies. There are 43 member agencies in the United States. In most States the college of agriculture, the agricultural experiment station or the extension service is responsible for the seed certification program. In many of these States a grower organization is delegated the responsibility to carry on the program. In a few States a division or a section of the State department of agriculture is responsible for seed certification. Some of these also have active grower organizations that aid in the promotion of good seed. Each agency is recognized by State law as the official seed certifying agency within the State where it operates. In 1968 about 17,000 certified seedgrowers produced certified seed on about 2 million acres. Many of the certification agencies have two classes of membership, active and associate. Active members are those that are certifying seed and associates are those not engaged in seed certification but are interested in the promotion of good seed. There were 8,000 associate members among the 43 agencies in 1968. Seed certification, briefly defined, involves the use of seed production and processing standards in combination with a system of recordkeeping, field inspections, and seed inspection to protect the genetic purity and maintain the genetic identity of crop varieties. One seed looks just like any other of the same kind, yet one may grow into a plant far superior to the other in some characteristic such as disease resistance or protein quality because the plant breeder that developed the one variety bred into it this superiority. If the consumer is to benefit fully, the seed of the superior variety must be increased in such a way that it is protected from admixture and/or stray pollen or less desirable varieties. Seed certification provides the consumer with assurance that every effort has been made during the production and processing of the seed he buys to maintain the genetic capacity of that seed to reproduce the variety as originally developed by the plant breeder. In other words, the seed he buys will produce plants which will possess all the superior attributes that make the particular variety desirable to him. The concept of seed certification was developed about 50 years ago. At that time very little certified seed moved in interstate commerce and none internationally. Most was consumed within the State or even the community where it was produced and certified. This situation changed as the value of seed certification became widely recognized and as transportation facilities improved. As this trend developed, the need for uniform standards and procedures became apparent. Obviously some degree of nonuniformity existed when seed was being certified by 40-odd certification agencies each having its own standards and procedures. Uniform minimum seed certification standards were developed and published in 1946, about the same time certified seed and certifying agency were defined in the Federal Seed Act. As is true in any industry, production, processing, and merchandising practices employed by the seed industry are constantly changing to meet the demands of the times. Associated with these changes is often the need to modify seed certification standards and procedures. An example is the production of alfalfa seed. For generations we recognized the power of natural selection and the survival of the fittest. We were sure that alfalfa seed, produced in an area where the winters were mild, would not produce plants that would survive the rigorous winters of the upper Midwest and Northeastern United States. This meant that the great seed-producing potential and the irrigated sections of such States as California and Arizona could not be used to produce alfalfa seed for the large consuming area of the upper Midwest and Northeast. As a result many years were often required between the time a new superior variety was released and there was enough seed to adequately supply the demand in the consuming area. The research workers discovered that winter hardy varieties could be increased one generation in the mild climate section of the country without seriously affecting the winter hardiness of the variety. Seed certification agencies with this knowledge and with the cooperation of the seed trade developed a new certification procedure, known as interagency certification to service and facilitate this new concept in growing alfalfa seed. A certain new production practice, or merchandising procedure, may also intensify the need for greater uniformity in seed certification standards and procedures. The Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies is of the opinion that current trends in interstate and international commerce in certified seed point up the need for a more specific legal definition of certified seed and certifying agency. Therefore, the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies supports the amendment of the Federal Seed Act as set forth in S. 1836. The benefits from the enactment of this legislation will include: (a) Certified seed moving in interstate commerce will for the first time be legally defined as meeting minimum standards for genetic purity. Therefore, the consumer will know what to expect in the way of minimum genetic purity of the certified seed he buys regardless of origin. In 1967, almost 22 billion pounds of certified seed was produced in the United States. It is estimated that between 50 and 60 percent of the total production may be involved in interstate trade. (b) The standards and procedures used by seed certifying agencies will precessarily be more uniform as applied to all classes of certified seed moving in interstate commerce. In the absence of the proposed changes, seed moving in interstate commerce that is certified by one agency may legally be genetically inferior to that certified by another or by the majority of the seed certifying agencies. The proposed legislation will establish minimum genetic standards for this seed and the certification of it. |