Grainswest - Spring 2024

Spring 2024 grainswest.com 17 BY MELANIE EPP • ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY CHU PBR commissioner instrumental in success of breeding legislation The rights man for the job T en years ago, Canada’s Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) Act was updated to align with UPOV ’91, the globally acknowledged framework that protects the innovation of plant breeders and helps them profit from new variety development. The legislation is intend- ed to protect breeders’ rights, increase investment in plant breeding and boost access to foreign genetics. Farm groups strongly resisted its adoption as they feared the cost burden for farmers. Anthony Parker is the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) commissioner of PBR and Canada’s head delegate to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). Parker grew up on a mixed farm near Bearbrook, ON, studied political science and en- vironmental studies at Carleton University, plant breeding and genetics at the University of Ne- braska, intellectual property law at York University and managed various CFIA departments. His considerable industry knowledge and experience made him an ideal candidate to push the contro- versial legislation forward. GrainsWest: How did you come to head the PBR office? Anthony Parker: I was acting director of the Horticulture Division when senior management came to me in 2012 and said they were getting pressure to move UPOV ’91 forward. We were a signatory in 1991. The government had tried unsuccess- fully to advance legislation in 1998 and the early 2000s. I was a bit naïve. I talked to the staff and asked what had been tried. They said, ‘Year after year, we try to push this forward through the ranks of government, and it’s just not getting traction.’ I said, ‘Let’s throw out the rulebook.’ Let this be driven from the outside by the farm community, producer organizations and the seed industry. If they want this to happen, the momentum must come from there. GW: What approach did you take? AP: We offered a lot of education on the benefits of strengthening intellectual property (IP) rights. We generally move such things through inside government, so [the process] is kind of isolated. You weren’t hearing outside voices. I reached out to each of the organizations and made myself available. That was unique. Our approach was to get accurate information in the hands of farmers and farm organizations and let them decide whether they wanted to move this forward or not. A group of stakeholders formed a coalition called Partners in Innovation. The partnership communicated with a single voice to government and said, ‘You need to do this. This is going to impact our long-term competitiveness.’