How Investment in Classical Breeding Can Support Sustainable Agriculture

The document advocates for the revitalization of publicly funded classical breeding programs in the U.S., asserting that this low-cost technology is more effective than genetic engineering for developing seeds adapted to sustainable, organic, and regional farming systems. It highlights a severe decline in public breeding resources, noting that the shift toward corporate-led seed development threatens food security by reducing genetic diversity. The author recommends that the USDA's National Institute for Food and Agriculture prioritize long-term funding for cultivars suited to agroecological systems to improve crop resilience, nutrient efficiency, and productivity.

• Classical breeding is presented as a more cost-effective and efficient alternative to genetic engineering for developing crop traits. The document estimates the cost of a classical breeding program at $5 million per cultivar, compared to $136 million per cultivar for biotech breeding programs.
• Publicly funded classical breeding programs in the U.S. have declined significantly. A 2013 survey of public university horticulture departments showed a decrease in cultivar development programs by more than 30 percent over 20 years, falling from 210 to 141. Specifically for corn, the number of public breeders in the U.S. dropped from 25 in the 1960s to only five today.
• The decline in public breeding has led to an overreliance on a few genetic lines, increasing vulnerability to disease. The document cites the 1970 Southern corn leaf blight epidemic, which destroyed 15 percent of the Corn Belt's crop and cost an estimated $1 billion, as an example of the risks associated with low genetic diversity.
• Classical breeding has achieved specific sustainability gains, including improving nitrogen-use efficiency in U.S. corn by up to 40 percent over a few decades. It has also produced maize varieties that improved yields by up to 30 percent under drought conditions in several countries.
• Classical breeding is uniquely suited for agroecology and organic systems because it can develop cultivars tailored to specific regional conditions and diversified farming practices. Research indicates that seeds specifically bred for organic systems perform better under those conditions than seeds bred for conventional chemical-intensive systems.
• The document recommends that the National Institute for Food and Agriculture of the USDA increase and sustain public research funding for classical breeding, specifically prioritizing cultivars for agroecological systems through long-term investments that match the typical 15-year breeding cycle.

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2015). How Investment in Classical Breeding Can Support Sustainable Agriculture. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/03/ucs-seeds-of-the-future-2015.pdf

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. How Investment in Classical Breeding Can Support Sustainable Agriculture. 2015. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/03/ucs-seeds-of-the-future-2015.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=How Investment in Classical Breeding Can Support Sustainable Agriculture |date=March 2015 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/03/ucs-seeds-of-the-future-2015.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2015how, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{How Investment in Classical Breeding Can Support Sustainable Agriculture}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2015}, month = mar, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/03/ucs-seeds-of-the-future-2015.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }