Banff, Alberta, Canada
July 17, 2014

Dave Baute, the owner and President of Maizex Seeds in Tilbury, Ontario has been elected to serve as the 2014-15 President of the Canadian Seed Trade Association. Mr. Baute was elected at CSTA’s 91st Annual Meeting in Banff, Alberta.

In his acceptance speech Mr. Baute stressed the importance of working with all of our value chain partners. He foresees a challenging era for innovative agriculture, and he called on the association and the agriculture industry to come together to support modern agriculture as a steward of health, safety and the environment: “We need to take a proactive approach to bring this entire industry together with a unified voice and a profound positive message. A mostly uninformed public is beginning to speak out with an emotional almost fearful cry. We need to listen, and we need to address it together.”

At the annual meeting, CSTA delegates honoured retiring Board members Stephen Denys of Pride Seeds and Dave Harwood of DuPont Pioneer. The membership also elected its 2014‐15 Board of Directors. Re‐elected for a second term is Todd Hyra of SeCan. New Directors are: Ellen Sparry of C&M Seeds and Wayne Gale of Stokes Seeds.

Attendance at the 91st Annual meeting was almost a record at 354 participants. Delegates addressed timely and important issues including pollinator health and industry stewardship; funding investment in plant breeding and variety development; international access to germplasm and benefit sharing; and measures to facilitate more open trade of seed, domestically and internationally.

“CSTA’s strength is in its diverse, but committed membership,” said CSTA’s new President. “I am looking forward to working with all of the members and with CSTA’s talented and engaged Board of Directors to strive towards our mission: to foster seed industry innovation and trade.”
 

Website: http://www.maizex.com

Published: July 17, 2014