Monsanto aims high, while others hit below the belt

Monsanto has had a few press releases lately that show they are working hard to change both their image and their products. The biggest by far is their three-point commitment to growing yields sustainably.

Develop better seeds – Monsanto will double yield in its three core crops of corn, soybeans and cotton by 2030, compared to a base year of 2000. The company will also establish a $10 million grant designed to accelerate breakthrough public sector research in wheat and rice yield.

Conserve resources – Monsanto will develop seeds that will reduce by one-third the amount of key resources required to grow crops by the year 2030. The company will also join with others to address habitat loss and water quality in agriculturally important areas.

Help improve farmers’ lives – The company will help improve the lives of farmers, including an additional five million people in resource-poor farm families by 2020.

The first two are good, but we expect improved seed from a seed company. I’m particularly interested in the third point. The press release tells us that “Monsanto also is committed to sharing its expertise in a way that gives [resource poor farmers] access to modern agricultural technology.” For example, “drought-tolerant maize for Africa that will be made available to farmers royalty-free.” Players include AATF, CIMMYT, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and government researchers from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa. “Monsanto will also work with public institutions to develop products for non-commercial crops that are important in some world areas, including cassava, cowpea and papaya.” Some comments on the press release can be found in the NY Times Monsanto Seeks Big Increase in Crop Yields.

Improving the world’s food supply and keeping things as sustainable as possible is going to be difficult, and will require everyone working together. The Financial Times has a two part article about the history of the last Green Revolution and explains why the next one will be so much more difficult (see image below). Monsanto is simply one of the few organizations with the tools and the funds to make things happen, and with the correct dialogues, the advances will be good for people and for the environment.

Of course, the company isn’t perfect, and setting high goals isn’t the same as meeting them – but it’s time that GM opponents let go of the whole “Monstersanto” schitk. We need to have adult conversations about the real issues surrounding genetic engineering, not just sling insults at one company.

Flooded out

It’s official. I won’t be able to plant any maize this year. My field seemed to be be ok at first, but now the flooding has spread. We can’t even get to the field because the road is flooded as well. I can’t tell you how happy I am that we waited to plant – if we had rushed, all of the seeds would have drowned. This image of what used to be a cornfield and is now a lake was taken by me on Thursday at about 9:30am. For more, see my Facebook album (no login required).
The field might dry out next week, but it’s really too late to plant because we’re almost past the summer solstice. The maize seedlings need to experience lengthening of days before shortening of days or they don’t grow properly. So, plan B is the greenhouse, where I can control day length with lamps.

Weather takes a toll… everywhere

Farmers have always been subject to ever changing weather, but this year seems especially bad. I wrote last week about the problems local farmers (and researchers) have been facing. The NY Times has an article showing that the weather hasn’t been much friendlier elsewhere. Farms in places as diverse as Australia and the Philippines aren’t off to a good start.
The most sobering quote from the article:

Last year, the rice crop in Arkansas yielded a record 160 bushels an acre. This year, experts there say, 150 bushels will be an achievement.

“There’s no doubt about it, we’re not going to have the rice to export,” said Carl Frein of Farmers Marketing Service in Brinkley, Ark. “Poor countries like Haiti, I don’t know what they’re going to do.”

Randy Kron (photo from NY Times) is an Indiana corn and soy farmer who won’t be able to plant this year. The article follows his story of fields that are too wet to plant. He concludes “I don’t know if this is the worst year we’ve ever had, but it’s moving up the list pretty quick.”
A lot of the comments on the post are typical: too many people don’t research or think before typing. One, though, had a different perspective. I really like reading what real farmers think, especially because they tend to be more optimistic and solution oriented than the doom and gloom Malthusians. One commenter who farms less than 80 miles from the farm in the article writes:

Weather takes a toll on midwest farms

I usually shy away from pessimism, but if you think food prices are high now, wait until the harvest in 2008. Flooding caused by unrelenting rain has been hard on Iowa’s corn and soy fields – and the summer is just beginning.
After all this rain, late summer droughts are predicted (just when the grain and beans will be maturing). A lot of farmers planted late or still haven’t planted. By the time the corn is silking, corn rootworm beetles will be ready to eat the silks, decreasing pollination and thus yield (in good years, silking is already in progress when rootworm reaches adulthood). The crops could be hit by toxin-producing fungus, rendering the grain poisonous even for feed (perhaps it could still be used for biofuels?).

Gene flow, IP, and the terminator

“Terminator seed” has been back in the news and blogs, due to some rumors that the Convention on Biological Diversity would consider rescinding the ban on the technology. Before I get knee deep into the politics, I’d like to make some quick comments on gene flow. First, pollen of many types of plants are capable of traveling quite far. The exact distances are dependent on wind, weather, plant density, species, etc. For the most part, though, pollen stays near its origin, so that gene flow between separated populations is slow (not many fertilizations between populations). It is fairly easy to test gene flow and pollen spread rates.

An elegant example was prepared by Jason Haegle, an undergraduate at Iowa State under distinguished professor Peter Peterson. As described in The Flow of Maize Pollen in a Designed Field Plot, Jason planted purple corn surrounded by yellow corn. He planted the rows 0.76 meters apart (much wider than normal) to eliminate any effect of plant density. He simply counted the purple kernels on the ears in the yellow corn fields to determine how much and how far the pollen spread. Yellow corn plants that were closest to the purple corn of course had the most purple kernels. Three rows into the yellow corn, numbers of purple kernels (thus amounts of pollen from those plants) dropped dramatically. Other studies on maize pollen flow agree that the majority of pollen stays near the plot. As Jason says in his paper, this is likely because maize pollen is large and heavy compared to pollen from other grasses.