The issue is that just based on the history you’ve mentioned I can’t say much about the status today. What developments have happened over the last two decades with more advanced methods? How much of the research is shared between countries, how much of the plants etc?
Hops are highly sensitive to the soil acidity and minerals in terms of the compounds the plants produce, so sharing plants is largely infeasible, plus because it’s the US many of them are trademarked so there’s no sharing for that reason
The issue is that just based on the history you’ve mentioned I can’t say much about the status today. What developments have happened over the last two decades with more advanced methods? How much of the research is shared between countries, how much of the plants etc?
Hops are highly sensitive to the soil acidity and minerals in terms of the compounds the plants produce, so sharing plants is largely infeasible, plus because it’s the US many of them are trademarked so there’s no sharing for that reason
Surely fertilizer and other additions can be used to adjust this, or genetic editing can be used to incorporate some stuff?
Okay, but almost everything is trademarked, doesn’t mean it can’t be bought/sold?
That’s a lot of expense compared to just importing US-grown hops, as there’s a lot of soil to adjust
And yeah, trademarks on plants are no joke, there’s a bunch of restrictions on buying/selling them etc.