The USDA proposes moving a large seed bank for corn from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to the central Iowa city of Ames. There’s concern the move would endanger the 100,000 climate-controlled samples of corn, some of them a century old, in addition to being redundant and very expensive. Iowa US Senator Chuck Grassley says he’s not worried about the proposal.
Researchers in plant genetics around the world request samples from the collection in Illinois so they can study things like resistance to diseases and the elements. USDA officials have not been forthcoming about the motives for the proposed move, just that it’s a part of the agency’s organizational restructuring. Grassley says he hadn’t heard a reason, but officials with the Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center in Illinois fear it’s politically motivated, based on red versus blue states.
Ames is home to the USDA’s North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station. The agency is also proposing moving a soybean seed bank from the Illinois facility to Columbia, Missouri.
