1996 Change in Leadership
In 1996, Dr. Dennis Thompson joined Illinois Crop Improvement, and Jim Shearl moved to an executive seed industry position with Golden Harvest. Dennis recalls that “the US corn and soybean grain and seed industries had set themselves up to face unanticipated international reluctance and product rejection of biotechnology-derived crop improvement.”
The Bylaws of Illinois Crop Improvement have long recognized the value of a broad-based agri-food sector as necessary to undergird a robust seed industry. Those Bylaws and the Board of Directors long-established freedom-to-operate approach to management allowed Illinois Crop to explore and test newer business areas.
Out of necessity, Illinois Crop rapidly deviated from the historical norm in operations and began to stretch existing capabilities while exploring companion avenues to utilize existing company talents and resources. While some initiatives worked better than others, Illinois Crop gained and maintained organizational stability during those difficult times. This included competitive research and working with organizations like C-FAR and other funding sources. Much of the work utilized Dr. Steve Mbuvi’s talents in the Identity Preserved Grain Lab.
On the seed certification side, the organization contracted with AOSCA agencies across the US to perform specific field activities and projects designed and operated by Illinois Crop to leverage our business development capacity and technical expertise and to generate revenue by operating beyond Illinois’ boundaries. International work was performed in Canada, Japan, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Ukraine, and Moldova. AOSCA Quality Assurance (QA) and Identity Preserved (IP) programs and compositional analysis were the central focus for crops such as oats, soybeans, and corn. Additional work with non-AOSCA entities to conduct large-scale projects (see 2005 PASS and TRAC programs).