Monsanto's 2030 Goals
By Rachel Melcer, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Dated: 06/05/2008
Monsanto Co. is offering to help farmers produce more crops while using less water, energy and land for every bushel of corn, cotton and soybeans they harvest using its technology.
The question is: Will the Creve Coeur-based company have many takers?
To succeed, Monsanto must win over biotechnology skeptics, address extremely complex global social, political and economic challenges — and convince naysayers that it should be at the head of the table.
But the company's leaders say they are prepared.
"The question of how do you produce more and conserve more is at the heart of what we're about. … And it's increasingly what the global challenge is about as well," said Hugh Grant, president, chairman and chief executive.
He laid out a three-point plan Wednesday morning during an employee meeting.
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Monsanto will develop corn, cotton and soybean seeds that double crop yields by 2030 over the level of production in 2000.
For example, the weighted average yield in the United States, Brazil and Argentina would reach 79 bushels of soybeans per acre by 2030, up 92 percent from last year's U.S. production; corn, 220 bushels per acre, up 46 percent; and cotton, 1,344 pounds per acre, up 53 percent.
In addition, Monsanto is donating $10 million over five years to fund public-sector research for improving yields in rice and wheat crops.
•The company also will help farmers conserve natural resources by developing corn, cotton and soybean seeds that require less energy, fertilizer and water to produce the same yield.
Its goal is to reduce by one-third the amount of resources required per unit of output in 2030, versus what was needed in 2000.
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