Western forage testing and the work of the Ontario Corn Committee are good examples of ongoing extensive varietal testing to fulfil a market driven need rather than a legislated requirement. By eliminating the reference to non-merit data in your third question, we get a clearer understanding of your intent for potatoes, hemp and alfalfa. It seems that what you are proposing is that the bacterial wilt of alfalfa, THC content of hemp and bacterial ring rot and TGA of potatoes should meet a legislated standard. The decision procedure is not complex for these criteria and does not require the deliberation of a recognized recommendation committee. There would be no need to convene a meeting of a recommendation crop committee to review individual variety applications if the determination is simple and straightforward.
Discussions are ongoing with other soybean stakeholder groups.
Our intent is to add clarity to the legislated requirements under the Seeds Regulations and to distinguish the mandatory requirements and role of the VRO from other work done by varietal testing committees. The point is, the work done by the testing committee for purposes of meeting the VRO requirements can be a small subset of the total work done. There is a need to differentiate work done for VRO requirements from the evaluations useful for buyers of seed. This definition remains valid and need not be amended. It is sufficiently broad to allow varieties with unique traits to be considered to have merit and not be excluded from the marketplace because of a narrow definition of merit.