Among its key findings are:

• The U.S. government has begun to develop and implement a focused strategy for global agricultural development, “with well-defined goals and benchmarks.”
• The U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development are showing “outstanding leadership” in advancing global agricultural issues.
• Congress and the USDA rate a “good” rating for their contributions while the Peace Corps is given a “satisfactory” rating.
• The Millennium Challenge Corporation is commended for its work in building agricultural infrastructure in developing countries, and its leadership is cited as “outstanding.”

“Renewed U.S. efforts are helping further the plans of African, Asian, and Latin American country governments to revitalize their agricultural sectors, spur economic growth, and alleviate poverty,” said Catherine Bertini, former executive director of the United Nations World Food Program and co-chair of the Chicago Council’s Global Agricultural Development Initiative.

Dan Glickman, former secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Also co-chairs the initiative.

On Friday, the Chicago Council will be hosting the Third Annual Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security in Washington, D.C. President Obama is scheduled to speak at the meeting.

The Chicago Council was founded in 1922 as the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. The Council is committed to “influencing the discourse on global issues through contributions to opinion and policy formation, leadership dialogue, and public learning.”

You can download the Chicago Council’s 2012 report in pdf format here.

My wife and I spend a lot of time in Grand Center. Decades ago, it was the place to see the latest movies, in large, rather opulent movie theaters that were so common in American cities. Today, it’s the heart of arts and entertainment for the metropolitan area.

Within a few short blocks you can find the St. Louis Symphony, Grandel Square Theatre, Fox Theatre, the Sheldon (considered to be close to acoustically perfect), KETC-Channel 9, St. Louis University, the St. Louis University Art Museum, the Contemporary Arts Museum, and several other arts or entertainment venues. It’s an amazing concentration of art, film, music, live theater and television.

What UMSL is doing with its community education center and bringing St. Louis’s public radio station to Grand Center is a major additional investment in arts and education for St. Louis. It’s an exciting thing see, and more, it’s an exciting thing to benefit from.

We’re glad to be a part of this.

Related:
Monsanto’s News Release
UMSL’s Statement

Illustration: Grand Center Map via NextSTL.

What I remember the most was getting sunburned. I spent the entire day on LSU’s parade ground, a large grassy area in the very center of the university. At one time, it was where the ROTC cadets marched in formation. It had become the place for large student gatherings, like the intramural flag football league, Frisbee championships, and events like Earth Day. I forgot to wear sunscreen. 

The day and what it’s about has changed over the years – environmental awareness has gone rather mainstream. The youthful enthusiasm and fervor of 1970 has given way to the policies and programs and bureaucracies of environmental protection. 

But it is still Earth Day, and especially so for farmers, farmers who figuratively and literally know and work and care for the earth. 

Collectively, the world’s farmers operate on about one thirty-second (1/32) of the planet’s surface. That’s what is utilized to feed and sustain six billion people – becoming nine billion by 2050, assuming current population trends hold. 

With all of the volume and diversity of food that’s being produced, no one is growing new dirt. 

Stewardship matters. For farmers, it goes beyond personal feelings, or the kinds of things I experienced in 1970. 

For farmers, caring for the earth is a business necessity. They know what happens if the soil plays out, or if erosion goes unchecked. They’re out of business. 

So for this Earth Day, in 2012, we’d like to recognize the people who are the stewards of the land – the people who grow more with less, the people who care for the soil, the people who the rest of us depend upon for our food. 

The people whom we call farmers.

Best Food Facts, a web site sponsored by the Center for Food Integrity, has an interview with three food experts about the safety of biotech sweet corn, other issues raised in the article, and what – if any – effect GM food has on human health. The three are professors at the University of Illinois, the University of Georgia and the University of California-Davis.

You can read the article here.

The Center for Food Integrity is focused on building trust and confidence in today’s food system. Monsanto is one of the many sponsors of CFI, but we do not exercise any editorial control over CFI’s information and research.

For more information on Monsanto’s biotech sweet corn, please visit Monsanto.com.

A few facts:

We have not testified on the bill in question, nor have we made any public statements.

A legislative committee held hearings about the labeling effort and invited a number of groups to provide their input. A representative from BIO, the industry trade group, did testify before the committee, and did say that the bill raised constitutional questions that would need legal review. But there was no threat to sue.

Additionally, the House Agriculture Committee heard similar information regarding constitutional questions from the Vermont Attorney General’s office and the Vermont Legislative Council.

So this isn’t as exciting a story as what the various publications have reported.

But it does happen to be the accurate one.

Quite a bit of the day’s conversation was shared on Twitter, here are some of the highlights:

History of Weed Resistance

• The importance of delivering a high quality product can not be overstated as the global market is so competitive
• Farmers need to push for both high quality & high yield. That is what is needed in today’s market.
• There have been other products with herbicide resistance. Important to get the information out.
• He’s showing a dozen resistant weeds some have been resistant for 50 years or so with triazines, then ALS, etc
• In 2000, there was no glyphosate resistance in the Midwest. Now have marestail/horseweed which tillage can help manage, but now waterhemp & ragweed
• Flooding issues have facilitated resistance spread with resistant weed seeds floating from neighboring field to others
• Farmers sometimes miss there is a problem, thinking something else. Need to assume they have to do something now and work proactively, especially if they are dealing with waterhemp, marestail, Palmer amaranth and/or ragweed.
• Waterhemp has been resistant to various herbicides since the 1990s. Have resistance to herbicides in GMO & non-GMO beans
• Weed management challenges of the early 1990s were really tough. That was when ALS herbicides were an issue and ALS-resistant weeds continue to influence weed management today.

Managing Resistant Weeds Today

• Need to remember what you have in the field the year before, as it may help you look at pre-emerge products differently. Important to use them
• Will never find a mode of action more effective on weeds than glyphosate. Roundup is a great product even in light of resistance
• If you see any change in how effective a product is, you need to start looking at mixing up your program. Better to be changing program up anyway.
• Young started seeing problems with waterhemp in 2002. If it takes a second application, you may have already hurt your yields due to weed competition
• Need to be careful about reliance on a single mode of action without adding any other product.
• You cannot till or trait-rotate your way out of resistance once it occurs in a field. Need to know what is there & take appropriate action tailored to the situation.
• Preplant tillage by itself will not prevent herbicide resistance, Young says.
• Things to do? Rotate crops, use cover crops, apply soil applied residuals, consider physical controls, multiple modes of action, etc
• Young uses DIRT to fight Diversify (chemical, mechanical, cultural, etc) Integrate (2 effective modes) Rate (full rates, PRE or POST) Timing (apply at optimal times for both PRE and POST)
• Need to be getting control before breakthroughs or cleaning up when the are less than 4 inches
• Using a residual herbicide at planting to keep it taken care of.
• Young says give weeds the finger! Control weeds then they are no longer than your finger, 2-4 inches tall. View photo

For additional information, see the following websites:

• Southern Illinois University Weed Science
• Herbicide Resistance Action Committee
• International Survey of Herbicide Resistant Weeds
• RoundupReadyPLUS.com

Charlie is the center’s CEO, and today he reviewed the consumer research completed in 2011, underscoring how shared values are more important than what the science might say (or might not say). Afterward, we asked him to say a few words about the center, its work, and the task ahead for agriculture.

The convention started yesterday with board meetings and open forum discussions, and gets fully underway today with seminars, speeches, forums and the trade show. The Classic’s web site provides a “schedule at a glance” that outlines the major activities planned. Headline events include a panel of the four commodity association presidents discussing issues of importance to agriculture, the National Association of Corn Growers and American Soybean Association awards banquets, and a special presentation by the Grand Ole Opry.

Farmers also have a wide array of educational sessions to attend, from increasing yields and precision agriculture to environmental issues and growing exports.

In addition to our trade show booth, Monsanto has two significant activities planned – the announcement of the new Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System and the kickoff of the new Farm Mom of the Year contest. (All the details on the Farm Mom contest can be found on Monsanto.com.)

Farm Industry News has a good summary of major announcements planned by other agricultural suppliers. The National Corn Growers Association has a report on the conference as well; the association has also posted an interview with NCGA President Garry Niemeyer of Illinois about Commodity Classic.

Nashville is a great host city, and a considerable amount of important work will be accomplished by the commodity associations and their boards. We are pleased to be a small part of this classic event.

Photograph courtesy of Commodity Classic.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York considered the facts and the arguments. And then the court dismissed the lawsuit.

Here’s some of what the court said:

• There was no case or controversy in the matter because Monsanto had not taken any action or even suggested taking any action against any of the plaintiffs.
• Monsanto had a long-standing public commitment that “it has never been, nor will it be, Monsanto policy to exercise its patent rights where trace amounts of our patented seeds or traits are present in a farmer’s fields as a result of inadvertent means.”
• Plaintiffs’ allegations were “unsubstantiated … given that not one single plaintiff claims to have been so threatened.”
• Plaintiffs had “overstate[d] the magnitude of [Monsanto’s] patent enforcement,” noting that Monsanto’s average of roughly 13 lawsuits per year “is hardly significant when compared to the number of farms in the United States, approximately two million.”

What does this mean?

The decision underscores that agricultural practices such as ag biotechnology, organic and conventional systems do and will continue to effectively coexist in the agricultural marketplace.

The ruling tears down a commonly perpetuated myth about lawsuits against farmers, noting that such claims are unsubstantiated and unjustified.

And the ruling is clear: There is neither a history of behavior nor a reasonable likelihood that Monsanto would pursue patent infringement matters against farmers who have no interest in using the company’s patented seed products.

Monsanto has consistently said – and consistently practiced – the belief that all farmers should have the opportunity to select the production method of their choice – whether that be organic, conventional or the improved seeds developed using biotechnology. All three production systems contribute to meeting the needs of consumers, and all three will continue to do so.

While the adoption of biotech crops has been remarkable, an equally important story is behind the numbers. The adoption is not limited to developed countries but is also being embraced by farmers in developing countries, and some 29 countries worldwide are now growing these crops.

The principal reason behind this growth, ISAAA says, is that “biotech crops deliver substantial, and sustainable, socio-economic and environmental benefits.”

The United States continues to lead in the number of hectares planted, with Brazil, Argentina, India, Canada, China, Paraguay, Pakistan, South Africa and Uruguay rounding out the Top 10. Crops planted include corn/maize, soybeans, cotton, canola, sugarbeets, alfalfa, papaya, squash, tomatoes, sweet peppers, poplar, and potatoes (not all crops are grown in all countries). Monsanto’s businesses include corn, soybeans, cotton, canola, sugarbeets and alfalfa.

Other key facts cited in the ISAAA report are:

• Some 16.7 million farmers grew biotech crops in 2011, up 1.3 million from 2010 – “notably, 15 million or 90% were small resource-poor farmers from developing countries.”
• Almost half of the biotech crops worldwide are grown in developing countries.
• Stacked traits represent about 25 percent of the global total hectares.
• The five developing countries leading in biotech crop plantings are China, India, Brazil, Argentina and South Africa, accounting for 40 percent of the world’s population. Brazil is emerging as a global leader in biotech crops.
• Bt cotton has transformed cotton production in India, while in China, seven million farmers are growing Bt cotton on 3.9 million hectares.
• Six countries in the European Union increased their plantings of Bt maize – Spain, Portugal, Poland Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.
• Biotech soybeans are the leading biotech crop and account for 47 percent of total plantings.

A story in Farm Chemicals International has taken a look at the ISAAA report and concludes that developing economies are the new face of the biotech boom.

Related:

The ISAAA Report Executive Summary.

Farm Chemicals International: Developing Economies: New Face of the Biotech Boom.

The Bloomberg story on the ISAAA report.