Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
addition to corporate social responsibility, and promote a dialogue
between experts and nonexperts to gain trust and legitimacy. This chap-
ter summarizes the Dutch experience with GM agriculture and suggests
ways of filling these gaps.
Agriculture in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, like elsewhere, plant breeding has been an artistic
quest over the centuries, advancing on a trial-and-error basis. Particu-
larly significant events were the introduction by early European explor-
ers of new food plants to Europe from the Americas (maize, potato, and
tomato) and Asia (rice, spices, and soybean). After 1884, Dutch agricul-
ture took a more scientific approach, and around 1904 started to inspect
field crops to ensure good, consistent seeds and healthy seed potatoes. To
this end, they crossed and backcrossed different varieties mainly by the
homologous recombination of different genomes, thus mixing thousands
of unknown genes.
The government then established a Descriptive List of Varieties of
Arable Crops to protect and reward seed breeders' efforts and guide
growers in their choice of crop plants. The Breeder's Decree of 1941 and
the Seeds and Planting Materials Act of 1967 provided incentives for
commercialization with legal protections for developing and marketing
new crop varieties. If a farmer's seeds met the criteria for a novel crop
variety, such as distinguishability, uniformity, and stability, the farmer
could register the seeds with the Dutch Register of Varieties, thus ensur-
ing that no one but the original breeder could commercially reproduce
the crop for up to twenty-five years. Because Dutch agriculture empha-
sized exports, the regulatory system encouraged seed innovation to pro-
duce new varieties that would be better than existing plants and result in
higher yield crops for export.
As a result, the Register of Varieties shaped plant breeding in the
Netherlands over a period of fifty years, and the genetic basis for char-
acteristics such as taste and smell, pest and disease resistance, and
