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Andy LaVigne

Andy LaVigne is President & CEO of the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA), a role he has held since 2006.

Jun 1, 2026

25:20
Mm-hmm.
25:20
Where is food, you know, where does food play in how we, uh, you know, we live our daily lives, you know? And that comes ultimately down to the farmer and what they choose to pl- plant and what the market is.
25:31
What are the other factors that come into play? We go from, in agriculture, we go from a five-year farm bill, you know.
25:37
Every five years, let's set the new farm bill.
25:39
Well, if you followed the farm bill over the last 25, 30 years, all we've done is do a little tweaking here and there.
25:45
And, you know, I think 2018 we had a pretty good change in it under the leadership of Chairman Pat Roberts to really get to where, you know, you were farming the market, you were trying to...
25:55
You got crop insurance, and that covered any losses you may have.

7 MINS LATER

32:32
Yeah.
speaker_4HOST
12:33
Do you hear from some of your members about, you know, for example, when it comes to wheat, the variety registration system in Canada and some of the challenges that they faced?
12:42
We do.
12:43
We do.
12:43
And I, and I know I hear from a lot of Canadian seed companies as well.
12:46
They'd like to bring some of the varieties that have been developed in the US into the market in Canada, but it takes longer to, to go into the market than it does in the US, and that difference in the two systems is a bit of a challenge getting into the registry in, uh, in Canada.
13:01
So we've been working very closely with Seeds Canada and with the Canadian, um, uh, Department of Agriculture to really improve that process.
13:10
It is still there and, you know, dealing with the certification and everything, just a different process than here on, in, uh, the US.
speaker_4HOST
13:41
Fair enough.

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