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Organic Seed Alliance Plant Breeding Committee
The OSA Plant Breeding Advisory Committee includes university-based and non-profit leaders in organic plant breeding research and variety development. Committee members consult and participate in OSA plant breeding research and education projects and advise on OSA PPB program development. Organic plant breeding is a developing area of research within the scientific community. We work together to network with other researchers and private plant breeders to develop viable methods and models of breeding for organic systems focusing on participatory approaches.
Micaela Colley, Organic Seed Alliance
Micaela Colley is the Program Director at Organic Seed Alliance. She is the co-author of several educational publications covering topics on organic seed production, on-farm crop improvement and variety trialing. Micaela has eight years of experience in the organic seed field including past experience in the Southwestern region managing the Seeds of Change Research Farm and starting the company’s Organic Bulk Seed business. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Crop and Soils and a Master's degree in Horticulture from Oregon State University.
Dr. Stephen Jones, Washington State University
Stephen Jones, Ph.D, is the winter wheat breeder at Washington State University and the former Chair of the National Wheat Crop Germplasm Committee. He received a Ph.D. degree in genetics from the University of California at Davis and has been at Washington State University since 1991. He has published numerous scientific articles on wheat genetics and cytogenetics. He has also published papers on the history and value of public wheat breeding programs and the urgent need to keep these programs public. The wheat breeding program that Stephen leads has been in existence since 1894 and is one of the few public breeding programs in the country to have declared itself free of GMOs and corporate dollars. Stephen and his graduate students are actively researching organic, sustainable, and farmer participatory aspects of plant improvement.
Dr. Edith Lammerts van Bueren, Wageningen University and the Louis Bolk Instituut
Edith T. Lammerts van Bueren, Ph.D, has more than 25 years of experience in organic research and management. She is pioneer in plant breeding and genetic resources for organic agriculture and has put this subject to the European agenda. She holds a chair at Wageningen University in the Netherlands as professor Organic Plant Breeding since March 2005. She is also theme leader Organic Plant Breeding at the Louis Bolk Institute in the Netherlands, a research institute specialised in organic agriculture, health care and nutrition. Edith is co-founder and president of the European Consortium for Organic Plant Breeding (ECO-PB), and chair of the Section Organic and Low-input Agriculture of EUCARPIA (European Association for Research for Plant Breeding). She is member of the Dutch national Variety Commission.
Frank Morton, Wild Garden Seed
Frank Morton is an old salad grower gone to seed. He originated and operates Wild Garden Seed with a lot of help from his wife, Karen, their two boys, and the entire crew at Gathering Together Farm in Philomath, OR. They sell organic seed to many commercial distributors and directly to farmers through their catalog and website. Frank is a garden-schooled plant breeder and enjoys a BS in Psychology.
Dr. James R. Myers, Oregon State University
Jim Myers, Ph.D, holds the Baggett-Frazier Endowed Chair of Vegetable Breeding and Genetics in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University. He works on a number of crops including dry and snap bean, edible podded pea, broccoli, tomato, winter and summer squash, and sweet corn. Prior to employment at OSU, he worked as a dry bean breeder at University of Idaho. His main interest has been to improve vegetable varieties for disease resistance and human nutrition while maintaining quality and productivity in improved varieties. He is the originator of high anthocyanin tomatoes. Internationally, he was involved for 17 years in with colleagues in Malawi and Tanzania in the Bean/Cowpea Collaborative Research Support Program to develop disease and insect resistant dry beans for sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Myers is also breeding tomatoes, broccoli, and summer squash for organic systems. He has snap pea and snap bean varieties nearing release.
Dr. John Navazio, Organic Seed Alliance
John Navazio, Ph.D, is the Senior Plant Breeder for Organic Seed Alliance. He is also a faculty member at Prescott College in Prescott, Arizona and teaches classes in Ecological Agriculture and Plant Breeding for Sustainable Systems. John is a plant geneticist whose research and teaching is directed at the integration of innovative organic farming methods with breeding crops for decreased inputs and resistance to the environmental challenges of the 21st century. His field work includes increasing genetic breadth in several vegetable crops for their nutritional quality, flavor, texture, ability to scavenge nutrients, compete with weeds, and resist heat and drought. John develops participatory breeding projects with farmers across North America to improve crop germplasm for regional seed independence.
Dr. William Tracy, University of Wisconsin
Bill Tracy, Ph.D, is a sweet corn breeder and professor in the Department of Agronomy, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. To improve eating quality and pest resistance, Bill works with corn varieties from around the world. He creates and releases improved populations, inbreds, and hybrids. Bill considers it a great privilege to be a plant breeder; to work in partnership with green plants of amazing complexity and diversity and to create new varieties that may, perhaps, benefit humankind.
Steve Zwinger, North Dakota State University
Steve Zwinger grew up on the family farm in central North Dakota and attended NDSU to receive a B.S. in Agronomy. Since 1982 Steve has lived in Carrington, ND and worked at the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center assisting and conducting research relative to crops and cropping systems in Central ND. His main focus of research has been in assisting NDSU and other plant breeders in varietal evaluation and development, alternative crop development, and a recent emphasis on annual forages for both grazing and haying. Steve has been involved with the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society’s Farmer Breeder Club over the past six years and has conducted organic research during the past four years in a certified organic environment with the expectations of future research tying NDSU and NPSAS in collaborative efforts to better serve the organic community.
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