Ames, Iowa
June 8, 2009
Biotechnology Industry
Organization (BIO) affiliate, Excellence Through StewardshipSM,
has granted membership status to
Illinois Crop Improvement Association, Inc. (IL Crop)
according to Dr. Dennis Thompson, IL Crop’s Chief Executive
Officer.
IL Crop Quality manager, John McKinney, adds, “It truly is an
honor in that IL Crop is the very first new member to be
approved to join the ranks of the thirty-one founding companies.
These companies include major multinational conglomerates to
smaller organizations with very targeted biotech research
activities. From a seed industry perspective, this includes both
technology developers and the seed companies that license new
traits.”
Excellence Through StewardshipSM (ETS) is the first
industry-coordinated initiative to provide stewardship and
quality management programs for the full product life of biotech
plants. The program is intended to promote the responsible use
of agricultural biotechnology, the continued global adoption of
plant biotechnology, and the enhanced value of biotech-derived
plant products in the marketplace.
This new stewardship program builds on the Biotechnology
Industry Organization’s (BIO) efforts to promote consistently
high-quality guidelines across the agricultural biotechnology
industry for product stewardship and quality management. While
many organizations already have stewardship and quality
management programs in place, ETS provides industry guidelines
for the adoption of stewardship objectives, principles, and
management practices as well as third-party audits.
IL Crop has provided third-party Winter Farm Services to the
global agricultural seed and research community from their base
in Puerto Rico since 1986. The company’s station is located at
Juana Diaz on the south coast on former sugarcane production
land owned by the Common Wealth of Puerto. The three hundred
acre station is operated by a permanent core team of five
agronomists, three technicians, and one administrative
assistant. In addition, several IL Crop corporate staff members
based in Champaign, IL, have major responsibilities in the
operation and management of the station.
Since 2007, IL Crop has also been providing limited field
services in the US for both US regulated soybean and corn
projects according to Thompson as a result of Winter Farm
clients who have requested expanded services. IL Crop provides
US services in collaboration with an affiliate contract research
company.
IL Crop, according to McKinney, views the ETS program somewhat
comparable to the company’s successful 2008 ISO/IEC 17025:2005
accreditation of the company’s three Champaign, IL, based
laboratories. These include: bioassay/immunoassay, seed and
bioprocessing laboratories operated by IL Crop.
While it is incumbent on the members of ETS to encourage their
suppliers and contractors to incorporate the principles of
stewardship promoted by ETS, IL Crop saw the importance of
seeking full compliance and independent verification. In some
cases, technology developers have designated IL Crop to perform
services for licensees, and the ETS credential will assure both
the technology owner and licensee that the work will be done to
industry standards for trait stewardship.
IL Crop will pursue accreditation for ETS modules 3 and 4 which
respectively are “Confined Field Trials” and “Plant and Seed
Multiplication.” The accreditation will apply to work performed
in Puerto Rico and in the US.
“ETS and ISO accreditations will assure global clientele of IL
Crop’s commitment to providing field and laboratory based
technical service and while meeting US field regulatory
compliance under recognized quality management systems,”
concludes Thompson. |
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