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FARGO, N.D. Those attending the recent International Sugarbeet Institute in Fargo got a glimpse of what the future of agriculture is going to look like. That peek into the future was made possible by the keynote speaker Robert Fraley, Ph.D., the executive vice president and chief technology officer at Monsanto. In addition, he is often recognized as the father of agricultural biotechnology.

In his position, Fraley has his finger on the pulse of agricultures future, which he claims is very strong and promising.

Ive been doing this at Monsanto for 37 years, he said, and I would tell you today that the amount of science coming into agriculture is just stunning. I helped invent GMO. Today we are talking about the second or third generation beyond GMO.

From those first Roundup Ready soybeans and BT cotton approved about 20 years ago, a wide variety of crops have been added to the list such as corn, canola, sugarbeets and alfalfa, along with many other lesser crops, he noted.

Fraley feels the most important advancement of adapting GMO technology is the ability to use germplasm from all around the world.

This means the next improvement in corn could easily come from a breeder in South America or the next advancement in soybeans could come from a plant breeder in China. Now that we have every gene sequenced in these plants, each one of these breakthroughs can quickly be bred in.

Monsanto is currently spending over half of its research and development budget on breeding crops better with these new technologies, he said.

One of the biggest advancements to be used in the last two or three years is what is known as gene editing, and what is remarkable about it is the fact it isnt a GMO, even though it has the power to literally change every gene and do it in a very specific and precise way.

The distinction is, when we make a GMO, like a Roundup Ready sugarbeet, we have added a new gene to the sugarbeet, he said. In the case of gene editing, we are just precisely changing the genes that are there, but doing it in a way that gives us an enormous ability to improve the crop.

He listed several new products that Monsanto will soon be bringing to the market in an effort to make agriculture more productive and profitable.

Some would claim that only a few companies are involved in finding new products and services to bring to the ag industry. However, a study conducted by Fraley has shown that approximately 4,000 entities, both private and public, from around the world are working on a wide range of subjects ranging from the planting phase to the harvest phase of the industry.

Just considering the planting phase of agriculture, the survey shows over 325 companies are involved with planting equipment, over 525 with crop protection products and approximately 1,240 companies associated with fertilizers.

Over the last two years, investors in start-up companies, have invested over $10 billion in agriculture, Fraley said. There are literally a thousand new start-up companies involved in satellites, imagery and gene editing. It is a very dynamic area, with lots of new players coming in.

We are seeing the best of all worlds thousands of new startups and players coming in, and we are seeing some of the established players realize that they need to up their game, raise the ante and do more. And that is a really healthy thing.

The latest word on wheat

According to Fraley, wheat is the last major crop that has not seen the real benefits of biotechnology, molecular breeding or gene editing that we have seen for the other crops.

Monsanto, through its acquisition of WestBred and merger with Bayer, has started to do some of this work in wheat. The combination of the companies capabilities creates a pretty strong presence to be able to drive innovation in wheat.

I think that is one of the upsides from the business combination, he said, referring to the eventual merger of the two agribusiness firms.

Methods of winning acceptance of biotechnology

The final challenge Fraley issued to those attending his presentation is the need to communicate more. Today, less than 1 percent of the U.S. population is engaged in farming.

We are the 1 percent that needs to reach out, magnify our voices, and continually explain to consumers, politicians, the decision makers, the regulators the importance of agriculture innovation, he said. The consumers need to understand and can support and be comfortable with the kinds of innovations that we need to farm better, farm more profitable and to farm more sustainable.

This was the 55th annual International Sugarbeet Institute that brings together the growers and the allied industries that are engaged in sugarbeet production.

Read more:
Agriculture's biotechnology has a bright future - Farm and Ranch Guide

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