Farm and Ranch October 27, 2009 The National Association of Wheat Growers /U.S. Wheat Associates Joint Biotechnology Committee met at last week’s fall meeting of the two organizations held in Snowbird, Utah.

Mark Darrington of Idaho is Joint Biotechnology Committee Chairman and he says the group got a report on the recent Wheat Summit.

Darrington: “The big items that came out of it is that there is room for additional cooperation between wheat breeders and tech transfer companies. There are concerns that each university has its own requirements by state law of what is required to do an agreement between a tech transfer company and that individual state wheat breeder. So we are looking for boiler plate that can be consistent across the country and meet the needs of both parties.”

The National Association of Wheat Growers Board adopted a resolution that has NAWG and U.S. Wheat urging public universities to recognize the producer investment in public germplasm development and to also urge public universities to adopt a standardized uniform Material Transfer Agreement that includes the “Wheat Workers” Code of Ethic’s for germplasm exchange with public and private third parties.

Darrington says progress towards GMO acceptance in the marketplace was also a discussion topic at last week’s Joint Biotechnology Committee meeting.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.

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