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The grass seed industry isn't going to disappear just because JT made a strategic error. In the State of Oregon alone, it is a $340 million per year sector, one of the top agricultural crops in the state. Farmers will still plant forage crops, especially given all the marginal land that has come out of federal farm programs. Meanwhile, home ownership is at an all-time high, which is good for turf grasses. Grass also remains high priority in containing erosion in flood plains (such as the giant Yangtze flood plain). Biotechnology remains the arena that Battelle scientists voted the most likely to have a major direct impact on our lives during the first 10-15 years of the new century. The trends remain in motion, and ABTX remains a viable company for capitalizing on them if management learns from this experience, buckles down to the job of selling seed and developing seed strains, turns a profit, and maintains its distribution channels. The way the search for a partner played out is damaging to the company's reputation, but it doesn't stop it from being a viable business. ABTX can still sell seeds at a profit, develop a library of patents, and get where its headed. It's just not going to get there as quickly as the partner search led us to believe. |
