The Face — And Voice — Of American Agriculture
March 11, 2010
His name is Cal Dalton. He’s a retailer-customer of Monsanto’s, and he is a manager for the Landmark Services Cooperative in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin.
He recently received the Agri-Communicator Award at the Corn/Soy Expo, held in Wisconsin Dells. The award is given to a grower who tells agriculture’s story. The award is sponsored by Wisconsin Agri-View, and the recipient is chosen annually by The Wisconsin Corn Growers Association and the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board.
What Cal has done to merit the award tells you a lot about people who are committed to agriculture.
What RR1 Patent Expiration Means for Farmers
March 5, 2010
The patent for the original Roundup Ready (RR1) soybean trait is set to expire in 2014. That fact has raised all kinds of interest and questions, starting first with what it means for farmers.
Late last year, Monsanto worked to explain our intentions. Lately, several groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, have asked about the regulatory issues involved, because the scientific and export regulatory “estate” for a genetically modified trait like this one has to be maintained. If the estate is not maintained, farmers won’t be able to use the trait. We said last fall that we’d continue to maintain the “estate” for RR1 for at least three years after the patent expired.
Recently, we sought industry leadership to develop a comprehensive process for patent expirations for technologies like RR1 (there are a number of them going off patent after ours does in 2014). Early in February, the Food & Agriculture section of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), a trade association, agreed to take this on. We presented a draft concept on how we thought this could be achieved, involving both how to maintain the regulatory estate for technologies post-patent and guidelines for adding or “stacking” new traits to ones whose patents have expired.
But it’s still very early in the process. We think it’s a great idea to involve both farmers and government in this process at BIO, for two reasons. They both have a critical stake in the outcome, and their perspective and involvement is vital to achieving a comprehensive and balanced solution.
Social Media Coverage of Commodity Classic 2010
March 4, 2010
California Dreamin’ with Corn, Soybean, Wheat and Sorghum Growers
The 2010 Commodity Classic Show kicks off today in Anaheim, California. Classic (as its known to hip ag-sters) is the annual meeting of the nation’s corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum growers, hosted by the National Corn Growers Association, American Soybean Association, National Association of Wheat Growers, and the National Sorghum Producers.
We have a team of Monsanto employees at the show providing live coverage to growers back home to growers who don’t want to miss out on the action.
Be sure to check out the Commodity Classic hub on our Monsanto Web site during the show for event coverage. Attendees are tweeting live coverage of the event using the hashtag #classic10. You can also follow these Monsanto twitter accounts for coverage of Learning Center sessions – @MonsantoCo, @Kath_Monsanto, @KateOnline, Tyne_Ag.
We’ll also be posting photos and updates on the Monsanto Company Facebook page.
Here are some other great blogs and people to follow on-line for Classic coverage.
Blog Coverage
AgWired.com
NCGA’s Flickr page
NCGA’s Corn Commentary
NAWG’s Wheat World
Twitter Coverage
Many factors lead to better weed control for farmers
March 3, 2010
Roundup Ready technology contains in-plant tolerance to Roundup® agricultural herbicides, allowing growers to spray Roundup agricultural herbicides to kill the weeds without harming the crop.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned by talking with farmers, it’s that they have a great sense and appreciation of their farm’s history. And as a result, they have an even greater sense of how the present state of farming is better than it used to be.
Marvin Borg and Jeffrey Larson are two examples of that. Mention “weeds” and they both have stories that would make suburbanites happy that all they have to tend to is Saturday yard work.
Monsanto Employees Come Through for Those in Need
March 2, 2010
Monsanto employees survey the damage to a building after the earthquake in Chile over the weekend.
Charitable giving is an element of good citizenship. Today, Monsanto was named one of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens. It’s a nice recognition for the company, but I chose to focus on the global citizenship of our employees.
On this past Saturday morning, I checked my Facebook account over a cup of coffee and saw a post from a work colleague:
“Thinking of all our Monsanto Chile employees and hoping that everyone is safe.”
That’s how I found out about the earthquake in Chile. And like my co-worker, my thoughts immediately fled to the couple of hundred Monsanto employees we have in the region. Were they okay? Were they accounted for? (We’ve contacted most, but are still trying to get in contact with a few employees.) Next, I thought about Chilean farmers and the ag industry. How was this going to affect them? And finally I thought, how can I help?
