Introduction – privatisation exported

The wave of privatisations of plant breeding programmes gradually spread from the UK to other industrialised countries after the mid-1980s. As we saw in Chapter 8, much of the canola breeding programme in Canada was privatised with impressive dispatch during this period. In the USA, the funding of public sector plant breeding research remained more-or-less constant during the period from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, at a time when funding in the UK was already in steep decline. It was only after the mid-1990s that the decline seen in most other industrial countries eventually spread, albeit in less virulent form, to the USA. For example, in a 1996 study, it was found that there had been a reduction of about 12 scientist-years in plant breeding research in the US SAES system from 1990–1994, and a corresponding growth of 160 scientist-years in the private plant breeding sector. In a recent review, breeder William Tracey of the University of Wisconsin at Madison has noted the decline in the status and role of plant breeders in the USA and depressingly opines that within a few years: ‘Plant breeders will exist as technicians for [genetic] engineering programs.’ However, on the plus side, it appears that public sector plant breeding research has survived in far better shape in the USA compared to other industrialised nations.