Safeguarding the Future of US Agriculture - Global Crop Diversity Trust

ConclusionAlthough it is easy to assume that US agriculture is relatively self-sufficient, allagriculture in today’s world is interdependent. Crop diversity collections are thelynchpin of this interdependence, and thus central, as well, to the future of USagriculture. Global collections of crop diversity are a long-term public good, andneed to be supported in the public interest.The public good nature of crop diversity collections is not always obvious. Forinstance, some assume that private sector agricultural firms will maintain enoughdiversity to ensure food security now and in the future. Although the biggest firmsdo have impressive genebank collections, as a recent ERS study shows, their worktends to focus on only a handful of major crops. The study found that while privatespending on crop variety research and development increased 14-fold between 1960and 1996, that spending was concentrated on corn, soybeans and cotton. In contrast,public R&D expenditures in the U.S., which remained flat over the same period,were more likely to benefit a greater variety of more “minor” crops. 28Around the globe, agriculture is in the midst of a major transformation, akin inimpact to the period of agriculture’s origin, when farmers in different parts of theworld, at different rates and in their own way, domesticated a myriad of wild crops.That transformation occurred over millennia. Today’s transformation is occurringin the course of decades.Until recently, farmers the world over have themselves developed and selected thebest possible varieties to grow in their fields. These homegrown varieties, nurturedover generations, have represented a vast array of genetic diversity. Today, farmersaround the world are shifting their focus and switching to new varieties bred byprofessional plant breeders that may allow them to more rapidly improve theireconomic condition.In the U.S., this transformation began in the 1930s, with the development of hybridcorn—varieties with superior yield, but that required farmers to purchase new seedSAFEGUARDING THE FUTURE OF U.S. AGRICULTURE 41