Yields of Tomorrow Tour Focuses on Sustainable Agriculture
The year 1953 saw two events that through history have been repeated several times. The first - Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay become the first humans to reach the summit of Mount Everest. The second – the first Farm Progress Show, which took place on an Indiana farm in October and hosted more than 75,000 visitors.
Now, the Farm Progress Show welcomes more than 300,000 farmers from across North America and the rest of the world.
This year, Monsanto will be welcoming farmers to visit the “Yields of Tomorrow” technology tour.
“This year the focus of the Farm Progress Plot Tour is directly in line with Monsanto’s Commitment to Sustainable Agriculture,” Dion McBay, U.S. traits marketing lead, said. “We set the plot up in a triangular shape to allow us to spend a portion of the time talking about advances in breeding, a portion on biotechnology innovations, and a portion on best practices in agronomy. We’ve done that because those are the three key focus areas of helping to double yields by 2030.”
McBay said the tour is about demonstrating how Monsanto is committed to helping farmers raise yields both now and in coming years.“This tour is all about demonstrating to the farmer what yields of the future might look like,” McBay continued. “So the Yields of Tomorrow tour really gives us a chance to highlight Monsanto’s commitment to agriculture and our commitment to help farmers feed, fuel and clothe the world.”
Monsanto’s Genuity™ brand will play a major part in highlighting Monsanto’s commitment to sustainable agriculture.
“We believe that the Genuitybrand will stand out in the industry,” McBay said. “It will help farmers recognize the latest in U.S. trait technologies brought to them from Monsanto and are designed to help them do what they do best, even better.”
McBay also said that the two products he’s most excited to see spotlighted at this year’s Farm Progress Show are Monsanto’s Genuity™ SmartStax™ corn and Genuity™ Roundup Ready 2 Yield® soybeans. Both of these products will be launched in full commercial scale in 2010.
“We know that farmers are going to be really excited to learn more about the benefits that they deliver and the opportunity for higher yield and productivity,” McBay said.
This year something new will be added to Monsanto’s plot tour – vegetables.
“We had the opportunity to put on display vegetables from the Monsanto vegetable business,” McBay said. “We made a commitment to help farmers in their efforts to feed the world. The breeding advances that we’ve used to advance yield in soybeans and corn are the same breeding technologies that we are now implementing in molecular markers and molecular selection to help make better yielding, better performing varieties of vegetables.”
“Overall, we hope farmers will be tremendously excited by the trait technologies in our pipeline that can assist them in the opportunity to make doubling yields on their farm a reality,” McBay said.
For additional information on the Farm Progress Show, please visit the Monsanto Farm Progress Show site for blogs, photos, video, and the webcam from the plot.
Monsanto Company is a member of Excellence Through Stewardship® (ETS). Monsanto products are commercialized in accordance with ETS Product Launch Stewardship Guidance, and in compliance with Monsanto’s Policy for Commercialization of Biotechnology-Derived Plant Products in Commodity Crops. This product has been approved for import into key export markets with functioning regulatory systems. Any crop or material produced from this product can only be exported to, or used, processed or sold in countries where all necessary regulatory approvals have been granted. It is a violation of national and international law to move material containing biotech traits across boundaries into nations where import is not permitted. Growers should talk to their grain handler or product purchaser to confirm their buying position for this product. Excellence Through Stewardship® is a registered trademark of Biotechnology Industry Organization.
IMPORTANT: Grain Marketing and Seed Availability: Genuity™ SmartStax™ has received the necessary approvals in the United States, however, as of 9/2/2009 approvals have not been received in certain major corn export markets. Genuity™ SmartStax™ will not be launched and seed will not be available until after import approvals are received in appropriate major corn export markets. B.t. products, including Genuity™ SmartStax™ may not yet be registered in all states. Check with your Monsanto representative for the registration status in your state.
ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Roundup Ready® crops contain genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides. Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Genuity™, Genuity and Design™, Genuity Icons, Roundup® , Roundup Ready® , Roundup Ready 2 Yield® , SmartStax™, and SmartStax and Design™ are trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC. Liberty Link and the Water Droplet Design® is a registered trademark of Bayer CropScience AG. Herculex is a trademark of Dow AgroSciences LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2009 Monsanto Company.
