Obama administration must lead on agriculture
By Art Brandli
Friday, November 14, 2008 1:54 PM CST
Based on the global response to the presidential campaign and the election of our new president, the entire world will be watching the Obama administration.
That’s why it is critical that the new administration does not make any drastic changes that would affect the continued development and eventual global acceptance of agricultural technologies, including biotechnology.
While biotech crops are grown on more than 200 million acres in 23 nations around the world, many countries continue to prohibit the planting or even the import of biotech crops. Full support of biotech research and development from the Obama administration would send a strong signal to other nations that biotech crops are safe and vitally important to continued global food security.
Biotechnology is regulated in the United States by three federal agencies the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture. It takes about 10 years from the time a new trait is discovered until it receives federal approval to be commercialized.
When and if a new biotech product is ultimately commercialized, consumers can be assured that it has passed a full battery of environmental and food and feed safety studies. The effectiveness of our regulatory system is borne out by the fact that Americans have eaten ingredients from biotech crops nearly every day for more than a decade without a single incident of adverse health.
And the environmental impact has been nothing but positive. Biotechnology has enabled growers to greatly reduce their use of chemical insecticides, thanks to insect-protected corn and cotton.
An analysis by the Keystone Center shows that in the last 20 years, corn yield per acre has increased 30 percent while energy needed to produce a unit of corn has decreased by 30 percent and fertilizer use has remained flat.
We can thank technology for that. Because herbicide-tolerant crops have improved weed control, we have been able to convert to conservation tillage. Growers don’t have to plow and disk their fields to get rid of weeds before planting, and we make fewer herbicide applications. As a result, we make fewer passes with tractors and heavy equipment. This has reduced topsoil loss by 50 percent in the last 20 years and conserved millions of gallons of fuel.
More environmentally sound improvements are on the horizon, such as drought tolerant crops and corn that uses fertilizer more efficiently. These products could lessen the need for irrigation and ensure that any fertilizer that is applied is taken up by the crop rather than being lost to runoff.
Biotech crops unquestionably have lessened the environmental footprint of farming, but just as important, they are helping achieve global food security. The world’s population is projected to increase by nearly 50 percent by 2030. Feeding this population will require doubling food production. Since there is no more land available for agriculture, we must increase yields on the land already in production. Biotechnology is an essential tool to meeting that need. And it must be adopted globally in Africa and Europe especially if the burgeoning millions are to be fed.
The new administration in America can do much to influence steps toward global food security by ensuring that science remains the bedrock of U.S. agricultural policy.
Art Brandli of Minnesota is a board member of Growers for Biotechnology (www.growersforbiotechnology.org).
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