Biotechnology in Agriculture A World View

Global Food Cost Food for thought – The average American spent $120 on Valentine's Day!

Hunger is the World’s #1 Heath Risk 913,000,000 Undernourished Starvation kills more people every year than AIDs, Malaria, &TB combined There are more hungry people in the world than the combined populations of the USA, Canada & EU million children under 5 in developing countries die each year! Hunger and malnutrition causes 60% of these deaths.

Global Population Growth More than 10 billion people by year 2050

People / Ha.

Food / Ha.

7 Human Challenges Biodiversity protection Lack of reliable food sources and malnutrition Limited arable land Insufficient fresh water Soil degradation Better diet, better health A growing need for renewable energy

Agriculture & Natural Resources  Water –Ag accounts for 70+% freshwater withdrawals  Soil –Top soil erosion rate of 2.7 tons/acre  Energy –Agriculture is an energy intensive sector  Biodiversity –Crop monocultures can impact diversity

Lost land 5-7 million HA. of Ag land is lost each year due to soil erosion. Almost every new home takes land out of production. Desertification takes more land every year.

Trends Shaping Agriculture Today Shrinking Arable Land Per Capita F ACRES ARABLE LAND PER CAPITA WORLDWIDE Increasing World Population Over 9 billion people by 2050 Increasing Protein Demand Increasing Grain Demand

Future Crop Technologies Poised to Help Address These Challenges Agriculture’s Environmental Footprint Nitrogen-Use Efficiency Crops A Combination of Biotechnology, Breeding Advances and Agronomic Practice Improvements Will Help Agriculture Address These Challenges Global food security Enhanced productivity Higher-Yielding Crops Sustainable production Water availability Drought-tolerant crops Partnering to share technology with developing world farmers (WEMA) Biofuel Demands Yield technologies to help meet demand for both food and fuel Demand for Healthier Diets Vistive ® & Vistive ® Gold Soybeans Omega-3 Soybeans

Man’s Genetic manipulation

* Photo credit: AAAS, ARS, Nature 1980 – 2000 Gene Sequencing, Biotech Crops, Human Insulin 2001 Human Genome, Plant Genome, Animal Genome BC Fermentation & Leavening 1800’s Mendel’s Pea, Darwin’s Species, Pasteur’s Microbes DNA, Human Nutrition, Fortification, Green Revolution Antibiotics, Pasteurization, Preservation, Crop Breeding Building on centuries of science, biotechnology is a collection of tools used to improve and enhance plants, animals, and microorganisms for the benefit of society. Plant biotechnology builds on centuries of science

Modern corn Teosinte Centuries of plant improvement provide modern plants such as corn

Plant Biotechnology: Precise and Predictable Plant Breeding Desired gene Traditional/ Conventional plant breeding DNA is a strand of genes, much like a strand of pearls. Traditional plant breeding combines many genes at once. Traditional donor Commercial variety New variety Desired Gene X = (crosses) (many genes are transferred) Plant biotechnology Using plant biotechnology, a single gene may be added to the strand. Desired gene Commercial variety New variety (transfers) = Desired gene (only desired gene is transferred)

Farmers choose biotech crops “Farmers have made up their mind… they continue to rapidly adopt biotech crops because of the significant agronomic, economic, environmental, and societal benefits.” - Clive James, ISAAA

Today Source: Monsanto Data and ISAAA APPROVING RESEARCH FIELD TRIALS PROCESS UNDER DEVELOPMENT OR DELAYED GROWING BIOTECH GRANTING IMPORT APPROVALS 29 Countries are Growing Biotech Crops Today

Two Categories of Traits Constitute the Majority of Biotech Crops to Date Insect resistant crops - Bt genes - Corn and cotton Herbicide tolerant crops - Tolerance to Roundup or Liberty - Soybean, corn, canola and cotton Insect Resistant Cotton Herbicide Tolerant Corn Controlling Bugs and Weeds

What are the traits out there today? BT Same protein as made by Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacteria used as a “organic insecticide. Greatly reduces need to spray cotton and corn, only kills insects feeding on the crops. Protects the plant from low level insect damage Greatly reduces openings in plant that allow fungi to grow…reducing occurance of vomitoxin and aflatoxin.

What are the traits out there today? Herbicide Tolerance RoundUp Ready and Liberty Link Great weed control Low toxicity chemistry Reduces trips over the field Allows no-till agriculture No soil carry-over.

Toxicity – LD50 RoundUp – 5600 mg./Kg. Ignite (LL) mg./Kg. Caffeine -192 mg./Kg Aspirin – 1000 mg./Kg. Table salt – 3000 mg./Kg. Tylenol – 332 mg./Kg. Both RoundUp and Ignite are considered to have NO Mutagenicity, Carcinogenicity, or Teratogenicity by the EPA.

Insecticides Replaced by BT LD-50 Temik – 1mg./Kg. Deildren – 40 mg./Kg. Methyl Parathion – 3 mg./Kg. Diazinon – 300 mg./Kg. Lindane – 88 mg./Kg.

Biotech Patents – ownership BASF -228 Monsanto – 674 Bayer – 516 DuPont – 565 Dow – 234 Syngenta – 425 Lots of competition

Acknowledgments Civileats.com Monsanto USDA/ARS Worldometers.info