Deep-dive into challenges & opportunities for Organic Heterogeneous Material
The 3rd LiveSeeding online workshop on Organic Heterogeneous Material (or OHM) united almost 50 participants. Stakeholders from across Europe, ranging from researchers, breeders and seed producers to public authorities met on 29 April 2024 to take a step back and discuss challenges in OHM development, marketing and policies.
What is Organic Heterogeneous Material?
OHM refers to a genetically and phenotypically diverse plant grouping of a single plant species, e.g. wheat or maize, produced in accordance with Article 3 of the EU Organic Regulation. In contrast to varieties, variety mixtures or synthetic varieties, OHM is characterized by its dynamic nature to evolve and adapt to different growing conditions due to repeated natural and human selection.
Discussing common OHM issues across professions
The 3rd OHM workshop discussed some of the shared challenges stakeholders are facing when it comes to OHM development, marketing and the policy framework.
In four presentations, experts in their respective fields introduced the following topics:
- EU policy developments: Our colleague Ilsa Phillips updated attendees on policy developments within the trialogue negotiations of the EU proposal on plant reproductive material;
- OHM value chains: Dr Odette Weedon from Kassel University presented the results of a research project studying examples of OHM value chains for bread baking in Germany;
- Traceability: Diego Guidotti from Aedit covered digital tools for managing OHM traceability developed within the LiveSeeding project;
- Market uptake: Sebastian Kussmann from the organic breeding initiative GZPK (Switzerland) concluded with an overview of first results on his survey on opportunities and challenges of the market uptake of OHM.
Following these introductions, participants took a deep dive into their concrete challenges and experiences with OHM in three breakout rooms. Among the breakout groups’s highlights:
- It is important to engage new partners in OHM development, seed production and marketing and clarify open policy questions, e.g., the responsible authorities for official seed controls;
- Stakeholders should work together to demonstrate the credibility and potential of the OHM concept;
- Often opposing concerns, e.g., there are too many or too few options to register intellectual property rights on OHM, need to be actively addressed;
- Modular solutions adapted to specific situations should be possible;
- On policies, partners interested in OHM should remain active in their countries – especially at this stage of the trialogue negotiations – ensuring an optimal policy framework for OHM.
The presentations of the two previous OHM workshops are available on LiveSeeding’s YouTube channel.
About LiveSeeding
LiveSeeding is a 4-year Innovation Action on organic seed and plant breeding to accelerate sustainable and diverse food systems in Europe, which started in October 2022. It provides science-based evidence and best practice solutions to help achieve 100 % organic seed. The project has a budget of 6.6 million Euro, funded by the European Union, the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). To deliver on such an ambitious goal, LiveSeeding brings together 37 organisations from a wide range of sectors operating in 16 European countries.
Learn more about and follow the project on www.liveseeding.eu, LinkedIn, X and Facebook.
