On the Farm with Tennessee Farmer Johnny Dodson
This trip was long overdue. I’ve been lucky enough to talk to Halls, Tennessee farmer Johnny Dodson several times before – I vividly remember some Midwestern soybean farmers borrowing a cotton boll to show Johnny he wasn’t the only cotton person in Kansas City for a meeting and other chances to talk with him about [...]
Innovation Conserves Water in Hawaii
Water is a limited resource. According to FAO, agriculture is the world’s largest consumer of water. Between now and 2050 the world’s water supply will have to feed and create livelihoods for an additional 2.7 billion people. It is essential to identify ways to preserve this precious resource. The Monsanto team in Hawaii took this challenge to heart, and were able to conserve 11 million gallons of water annually.
We’re all in this together…
I’m the youngest of seven children. Before I was born in Ireland, my parents and six older siblings lived in Zambia for a number of years and three of them were even born there. They often talk about their time spent in Africa and my brother Ronan’s adamant claims of “Afro-Irishness” still amuse me to this day. This is perhaps one of the main reasons why I have always been intrigued by the African continent and its peoples – my family loved their time in Zambia and their stories and tales about the friends they met and the things they experienced do well to paint a pleasant picture of life there.
Producing More Vegetables in Peru
A huge challenge for today’s agriculture is producing more, using less resources. And at Monsanto, we are working hard to do our part. Our employees in Peru are an incredible example of this. The team at Monsanto’s Homefarm ICA vegetable seed production site looked at their entire site and through agronomic and production changes were able to increase vegetable yields almost 1,000 percent.
Gothenburg Learning Center Highlights Agricultural Conservation
By Sara Duncan Water limitations are constant constraints to western agricultural production. In 2008, Monsanto pledged to reduce, by one-third, soil, land, water and energy resources required to produce a unit of its corn, soybeans and cotton crops between 2000 and 2030. Using a combination of advanced breeding, biotechnology and improved farm-management practices, the company [...]
The Future of Food
As a Brit living in the United States, I have immensely enjoyed all the attention my former stomping grounds have been receiving lately due to the Royal Wedding. Watching my future king walk down the aisle, and having my American friends and family celebrate with me, was incredible and exciting. So when His Royal Highness [...]
World Water Day
The United Nations designates March 22 as International World Water Day, to focus attention on the importance of freshwater and to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. There’s no question how important water is to world food production – agriculture accounts for 70 percent of the consumption of freshwater. Monsanto, other companies, universities, governments and [...]
Talking about Water
We’ve been livetweeting Monsanto’s Water Utilization Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska, where Monsanto and some 250 growers have been meeting to talk about a new biotech trait that more efficiently utilizes water. A couple of time during the meeting yesterday, people following the conversation online asked: why does Monsanto care? One suggested a plot to take over the [...]
Farmers: Environmentalists That Are Making a Difference
I spend time each day looking through online farm publications. I have a list that I follow, ranging from news aggregators to the web versions of farm magazines, and I’m usually looking for so-called “hard news.” Recently, I was looking at Indiana Prairie Farmer, and I almost passed this headline by: Five Farm Families Receive [...]
Monsanto a Water Bully? Not So
Last week a misleading article about Monsanto appeared in The Guardian, a UK-based newspaper. The article made many inaccurate claims about Monsanto’s water use and our presence on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. The story gained a lot of attention and sparked a heated debate in the comments section, with participants from Molokai refuting Mr. [...]
Solving Our Water Woes
Monsanto Intern, Whittney, dicusses the dilemmas facing agriculture today when it comes to water usage and conservation.
