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Dr. Roger Beachy


Position: Founding President of the not-for-profit Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Education: Ph.D., Plant Pathology, Michigan State University; B.A., Biology, Goshen College

Notable: 2001 Recipient of the Wolf Prize in Agriculture; Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Member of the editorial board of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; Author of more than 200 journal publications.

We’ve seen advances that even were beyond our wildest expectations.
We’ve seen advances that even were beyond our wildest expectations.
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GENETICALLY ENGINEERED PLANTS DELIVER SIGNIFICANT ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS
Beachy Comments on Proven Value and Future Benefits of Biotechnology

For centuries, farmers and plant breeders selectively bred plants that were the largest, strongest and least susceptible to disease. They did not know it, but they were practicing a rudimentary form of genetic engineering – the removal, modification or addition of genes to a living organism. Genetic engineering is a fundamental process used in biotechnology, which enables researchers to develop improved crop plants, such as crops naturally protected from diseases and insects.

“Crop biotechnology is perhaps one of the most precise forms of plant breeding that we could ever imagine,” says renowned plant pathologist Dr. Roger Beachy, the founding president of the not-for-profit Donald Danforth Plant Science Center where more than 200 scientists are working to increase understanding of basic plant biology to benefit human nutrition and health and to improve the sustainability of agriculture worldwide.

“We are basic scientists that discover what genes do and how they give function to a plant – how they give it drought tolerance or disease resistance or more vitamins. And, then implant the genetic information through biotechnology to give them the new instructions,” says Dr. Beachy, who pioneered the development of virus-resistance in plants, leading to the development of the world’s first genetically engineered food crop. “So the more we learn about how plants take up minerals and how they deposit them, the more we'll be able to use that information and the genetics to improve crops.”

Researchers developed the first commercial application of genetic engineering in 1982 when they produced human insulin for the treatment of diabetes. However, the first genetically engineered plants were not commercially grown until 1996. In 2007 alone, more than 12 million farmers across 23 countries grew more than 282 million acres (114 million hectares) of genetically engineered soybeans, corn, canola and cotton.

“What’s been amazing to many of us is that we’ve seen advances that even were beyond our wildest expectations,” comments Beachy. “We all knew it was theoretically possible, but to actually do it and deploy it into the field. And then, at the end of four or five years, report that this has an advantage of increasing yields and reduce the use of agriculture chemicals by 50 million pounds a year. It’s an astounding number.”

A study on the cumulative global impacts of genetically engineered plants from 1996-2007 shows a decrease in pesticide applications of 289,000 metric tons, a US$34 billion increase in net income for farmers, and the elimination of 14.8 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions through fuel savings from reduced tillage or plowing. Independent research and more than a decade of commercial-scale use demonstrates that genetically engineered plants have enables farmers to engage in sustainable agriculture — limiting the impacts of farming on biodiversity.

“When we have that kind of breakthrough from the first 10 years of a scientific field, one can expect much more in the future,” comments Beachy on the potential benefits of research on genetically engineered plants in more than 60 countries across nearly as many crops. “We’ll have plants that survive drought. We’ll have plants that have more nutrition. And, we’ll have plants that have new uses and be able to benefit the farming community, the economics of farming, as well as environment.

“I’d love to see a potato that has more protein or more vitamins in it, so those whose diets are built more around potatoes can have a healthier living,” continues Beachy. “We’d like to see those increased by genetic approaches, and help to feed people better while helping them to feed themselves.”

© 2007 Monsanto Company. All rights reserved. The copyright holder consents to the use of this material and the images in the published context only and solely for the purpose of promoting the benefits of agricultural biotechnology.

Video Transcript



The Danforth Plant Science Center is a not-for-profit research center that’s dedicated to research in the plant sciences. … We are basic scientists that discover what genes do and how they give function to a plant – how they give it drought tolerance or disease resistance or more vitamins. And, then implant the genetic information through biotechnology to give them the new instructions. …

Crop biotechnology is perhaps one of the most precise forms of plant breeding that we could ever imagine. … If a plant variety has 25,000 or 30,000 different genes and we add a single gene, the degree of scrutiny that that variety will receive is enormous. …

On the other hand, if I do cross-breeding and take 30,000 genes from one variety and 30,000 genes for another, and then mix them together, … it’s not subjected to the kind of scrutiny that products of biotechnology are. …

… I can say with great assuredness that the products of biotechnology that are on the market today are as safe, if not safer than those varieties that they started with. …

… What’s been amazing to many of us is that … we’ve seen advances that even were beyond our wildest expectations. … We all knew it was theoretically possible, but to actually do it and deploy it into the field. And then, at the end of four or five years, report that this has an advantage of increasing yields and reduce … the use of agriculture chemicals by 50 million pounds a year. It’s an astounding number. When we have that kind of breakthrough from the first 10 years of a scientific field, one can expect much more in the future. …

… We’ll have plants that survive drought. We’ll have plants that have more nutrition. And, we’ll have plants that have new uses and be able to benefit the farming community, the economics of farming, as well as environment. …

And you know, we’re challenged in this world with a certain amount of water, certain amount of land. The only part that’s not fixed are the number of people. And the next 25 years, as we gain another 3½ to 4 billion people on this planet, … the challenge is now to produce more food for those next 3½ or 4 billion people without using either more land or more water. …

So the more we learn about how plants take up minerals and how they deposit them, the more we'll be able to use that information and the genetics to improve crops. … We would very much like to see foods that are more nutritious – that have more vitamins and more minerals in them. …

Those that are in third-world countries where they have – where they live on – just one or two crops, cassava or rice, have a real handicap. … And those crops are notoriously poor in nutrition. … I’d love to see a potato that has more protein or more vitamins in it, so those whose diets are built more around potatoes can have a healthier living. … We’d like to see those increased by genetic approaches, and help to feed people better while helping them to feed themselves.