Transcript Farming & Technology

Biotechnology in Agriculture
A World View
Global Food Cost
Food for thought – The average American
spent $120 on Valentine's Day!
USA
Ukarine
China
India
EU
Global Ave.
Income / Capita
% spent on food
$47,000
6.90%
$6,900
42.10%
$600
32.90%
$2,800
35.40%
$33,400 NA
$10,500 NA
Hunger is the World’s #1 Heath Risk
• 913,000,000 Undernourished
• Starvation kills more people every year than
AIDs, Malaria, &TB combined
• There are more hungry people in the world than
the combined populations of the USA, Canada &
EU.
• 10.9 million children under 5 in developing
countries die each year! Hunger and
malnutrition causes 60% of these deaths.
Global Population Growth
More than 10 billion
people by year 2050
•
People / Ha.
Food / Ha.
Human Challenges
Lack of reliable food
sources and malnutrition
A growing need for
renewable energy
Limited arable land
Soil degradation
Better diet, better health
Insufficient fresh water
• Biodiversity protection
7
Agriculture & Natural Resources
 Water
– Ag accounts for 70+% freshwater withdrawals
 Soil
– Top soil erosion rate of 2.7 tons/acre
 Energy
– Agriculture is an energy intensive sector
 Biodiversity
– Crop monocultures can impact diversity
Lost land
• 5-7 million HA. of Ag land is lost each year
due to soil erosion.
• Almost every new home takes land out of
production.
• Desertification takes more land every year.
Trends Shaping Agriculture Today
Increasing World Population
Over 9
billion
people by
2050
Increasing Protein Demand
Shrinking Arable Land
Per Capita
ACRES
1.0
Increasing Grain Demand
0.75
0.5
0.25
1961
1980
2000 2020
2030F
ARABLE LAND PER CAPITA WORLDWIDE
Future Crop Technologies Poised to
Help Address These Challenges
Global food security
• Enhanced productivity
• Higher-Yielding Crops
• Sustainable production
Water availability
Agriculture’s Environmental
Footprint
• Nitrogen-Use Efficiency Crops
Demand for Healthier Diets Biofuel Demands
• Drought-tolerant crops
• Vistive® & Vistive® Gold Soybeans • Yield technologies to help
• Partnering to share
meet demand for both food
• Omega-3 Soybeans
technology with developing
and fuel
world farmers (WEMA)
A Combination of Biotechnology, Breeding Advances and Agronomic
Practice Improvements Will Help Agriculture Address These Challenges
Man’s Genetic manipulation
Plant biotechnology builds on
centuries of science
10000 BC
Fermentation &
Leavening
1900-1950
1800’s
1950-1980
Antibiotics,
Mendel’s Pea,
DNA,
Pasteurization,
Darwin’s Species,
Human Nutrition,
Preservation,
Crop
Pasteur’s Microbes
Fortification,
Breeding
Green Revolution
1980 – 2000
Gene
Sequencing,
Biotech Crops,
Human Insulin
Building on centuries of science, biotechnology is a
collection of tools used to improve and enhance plants,
animals, and microorganisms for the benefit of society.
* Photo credit: AAAS, ARS, Nature
2001
Human Genome,
Plant Genome,
Animal Genome
Centuries of plant improvement
provide modern plants such as corn
Teosinte
Modern corn
Plant Biotechnology: Precise and
Predictable Plant Breeding
Traditional/ Conventional plant breeding
Commercial variety
Traditional donor
DNA is a strand of
genes, much like a
strand of pearls.
Traditional plant
breeding combines
many genes at once.
New variety
(many genes are transferred)
=
X
Desired Gene
(crosses)
Desired gene
Plant biotechnology
Desired gene
Using plant
biotechnology, a
single gene may
be added to the
strand.
Commercial variety New variety
(only desired gene is transferred)
=
(transfers)
Desired gene
Farmers choose biotech crops
“Farmers have made up their mind… they continue
to rapidly adopt biotech crops because of the
significant agronomic, economic, environmental,
and societal benefits.”
- Clive James, ISAAA
29 Countries are Growing Biotech Crops Today
1995
Today
2001
 APPROVING RESEARCH FIELD TRIALS
 GROWING BIOTECH
 GRANTING IMPORT APPROVALS  PROCESS UNDER DEVELOPMENT OR
Source: Monsanto Data and ISAAA
DELAYED
Two Categories of Traits Constitute the Majority
of Biotech Crops to Date
Controlling Bugs and Weeds
Insect resistant crops
- Bt genes
- Corn and cotton
Insect Resistant Cotton
Herbicide tolerant crops
- Tolerance to Roundup or Liberty
- Soybean, corn, canola and cotton
Herbicide Tolerant Corn
What are the traits out there today?
BT
• Same protein as made by Bacillus thuringiensis,
a bacteria used as a “organic insecticide.
• Greatly reduces need to spray cotton and corn,
only kills insects feeding on the crops.
• Protects the plant from low level insect damage
• Greatly reduces openings in plant that allow
fungi to grow…reducing occurance of vomitoxin
and aflatoxin.
What are the traits out there today?
Herbicide Tolerance
• RoundUp Ready and Liberty Link
• Great weed control
• Low toxicity chemistry
• Reduces trips over the field
• Allows no-till agriculture
• No soil carry-over.
Toxicity – LD50
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RoundUp – 5600 mg./Kg.
Ignite (LL) -1400 mg./Kg.
Caffeine -192 mg./Kg
Aspirin – 1000 mg./Kg.
Table salt – 3000 mg./Kg.
Tylenol – 332 mg./Kg.
Both RoundUp and Ignite are considered to
have NO Mutagenicity, Carcinogenicity, or
Teratogenicity by the EPA.
Insecticides Replaced by BT
LD-50
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Temik – 1mg./Kg.
Deildren – 40 mg./Kg.
Methyl Parathion – 3 mg./Kg.
Diazinon – 300 mg./Kg.
Lindane – 88 mg./Kg.
Biotech Patents – ownership
1976 - 2000
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BASF -228
Monsanto – 674
Bayer – 516
DuPont – 565
Dow – 234
Syngenta – 425
Lots of competition
Acknowledgments
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Civileats.com
Monsanto
USDA/ARS
Worldometers.info