GOVERNMENT INSIGHTS
Modern Agriculture Industry gears up to PROMOTE BENEFITS of chemicals, new technologies
SHUTTERSTOCK
BRITT E. ERICKSON, C&EN WASHINGTON
THE INTERNATIONAL Food In-
they need to do it while making the formation Council Foundation most of every available acre and evrecently released its annual survey ery drop of fresh water,” he said. of public views toward food and nuThe second challenge is to edutrition. For the first time, concern cate the public about the tools and about chemicals on food went up technologies that enable farmers to and concern about bacterial conmeet those production demands, tamination went down. Consumers Buckner noted. Most consumers clearly aren’t paying attention to see only the negative impacts of the science. modern agriculture and are unBeing more concerned about aware of its benefits. The pesticide industry now chemicals on food than about bacterial contamination “goes against James E. McWilliams, associate refers to pesticides as crop virtually everything the food safety world would tell you,” stressed professor of history at Texas State protection products. George Gray, a professor of environmental and occupational health University, San Marcos, recomat George Washington University’s School of Public Health & mended that the industry focus on Health Services. Gray was speaking at the first National Policy Condirect consumer benefits. For example, companies could genetiference held in Washington, D.C., on July 13—an event sponsored by cally modify crops to be more nutritious, or they could modify the pesticide industry trade group CropLife America (CLA). yeast used in making wine to decrease hangover symptoms, he sugCLA is on a mission to give modern agriculture a better image. gested. Genetically modified crops would be win-win: They would The group wants to avoid consumer backlash from biotechnology have attributes that can be easily conveyed to consumers and and is trying to convince people that pesticides are a safe and necwould allow farmers to make bigger profits in the short term. essary part of growing food. To start, the industry has essentially replaced the term pesticide THE LONG-TERM BENEFITS, however, are not obvious, pointed with crop protection product, which has a nicer ring to it. But much out Margaret Mellon, director of the Food & Environment Program more than a name change is needed to promote modern agriculat the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group. When ture and make it more palatable to the average person. farmers switched to genetically engineered corn and soybeans, As a step toward getting the agriculture community more involved yields did go up, Mellon pointed out. However, “they did not go in advocating the benefits of modern technology, CLA sponsored the up because of the genetically engineered traits,” she emphasized. July meeting. The group invited several leading experts in food safety “Traditional breeding has produced increases of yield that a lot of and agriculture to discuss the challenges facing the industry. the genetic engineering companies are taking credit for.” Moderator Marc Gunther, a contributing editor at Fortune Mellon also questioned the oft-cited argument that biotech magazine and a senior writer at Greenbiz.com, kicked things off crops will reduce the use of pesticides. Such crops do result in “a by giving a brief definition of modern agriculture. In his words, the decrease in pesticide use in the few years immediately after the phrase refers to a “range of technologies including conventional introduction of the technology, but over time those reductions fertilizers and pesticides, precision applications of those chemido not last,” she noted. Eventually, farmers will need to go back to cals, precision applications of water, global positioning systems, using more toxic herbicides to combat weeds that are becoming conventional breeding, and genetically modified plants.” increasingly resistant to herbicides. Such tools and technologies are responsible for the dramatic inAlthough the meeting was intended to highlight many of the creases in farm productivity seen over the past 60 years in the U.S., issues facing modern agriculture, the bulk of the time was spent Gunther said. “There’s no argument that modern agriculture has discussing genetically modified crops. But modern agriculture brought us an abundance of food in this country,” he noted. encompasses much more than biotechnology, and the agriculture But modern agriculture has also led to negative impacts such as industry might be better off focusing on sustainability instead. increased soil erosion and the consumption of huge amounts of Indeed, when it comes to sustainability, modern agriculture fresh water. It is also leading to an overabundance of food that is actually looks pretty good. For agriculture to be sustainable it must contributing to the obesity epidemic in the U.S. “produce enough food for everyone, protect natural William Buckner, president and chief executive resources, and prove financially viable for growers officer of Bayer CropScience and chairman of CLA’s consumers,” Buckner pointed out. And as he put Most consumers and board of directors, summed up the situation facing it: “Modern agriculture works to achieve all three see only the farmers. “Today’s farmers find themselves at the goals better than any system that preceded it.” negative impacts intersection of two challenges,” he noted. First, they of modern must double agricultural output to feed a world that Views expressed on this page are those of the author is predicted to grow to 9 billion people by 2050. “And and not necessarily those of ACS. agriculture. WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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