During the past several years, major changes have been occurring in the oilseed industry. The demand for low saturated and superior cooking oils has increased substantially. This has resulted in an increase of canola oil in the USA market, replacing soybean and other oils. Consumer demand, and federal regulations are driving us towards commercial production of oil with superior cooking qualities and stability and with lower saturated fatty acids.
Private interests control some of the superior oil and protein quality traits.
There are also new generations of vegetable oils with lower levels of polyunsaturated fat and higher levels of monosaturated fat, which have greater heat and oxidative stability in food applications. Due to increased customer demand for higher quality soybean meal, there is a need to develop soybean with higher protein concentration. Feed products for the poultry and swine industry are the largest current market for soybean meal. One of the challenges in breeding for increased protein is to maintain high yield potential, because there is a negative correlation between yield and high seed protein in soybean. In our breeding efforts, we are using non GMO approaches in modifying the protein and fatty acid contents.