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U.S. Embassy Discusses the Global Growth of Agricultural Biotechnology
with Dr. Clive James, Chairman ISAAA:
Deputy Chief of Mission Joseph Donovan met today with Dr. Clive James,
Chairman of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech
Applications, a not-for-profit organization that delivers the benefits
of new agricultural biotechnologies to developing countries. They discussed
the critical role that agricultural biotechnology plays in food security.
DCM Donovan received a copy of a recent ISAAA report showing that in 2007 over 114 million hectares of biotech crops were grown
in 23 countries around the world. Also, in 2007, the number of farmers
planting biotech crops surged past 12 million and more than 90 percent
of these are small, resource-poor farmers from the developing world.
Mr. Donovan commented that, ‘Biotechnology is critical to increasing global food security and lessening the impact that agriculture has on the environment. I hope that Japan takes note of agricultural biotechnology’s widespread and growing use around the world.’
Background Information on Agricultural Biotechnology for the United States and Japan:
Biotechnology is a strategic group of technologies that make possible a range of exciting new medical, industrial, and agricultural products.
- Agricultural biotechnology is a tool that allows plant breeders to select genes that produce desired traits and move them from one plant to another. This creates opportunities to introduce genetic traits that advance food production, the environment, and human health.
- Biotechnology provides farmers with new production tools. Some biotechnology crops withstand herbicides, which make weed control simpler and more efficient. Other crops are resistant to plant diseases and insect pests, leading to a decreased use of synthetic pesticides. New crops with drought tolerance and nutritional enhancements are now being reviewed in the United States and Japan.
- The Untied States views agricultural biotechnology as being critical to meeting the growing demand for food, feed, and fuel.
- The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that the world population will grow from 6 billion in 1999 to 9 billion by 2042. This will complete a tripling of the earth’s population in less than a century.
- Major increases are foreseen in per capita consumption of fish, meat
and milk products, especially in Asia. World cereal demand could double
by 2050. - How will these people be fed? One estimate is that without an
increase in farm productivity, an additional 1.6 billion hectares of arable
land will need to come under the plow by 2050. This could have catastrophic
consequences for environmentally sensitive and as yet unexploited areas
of the world.
- Biotechnology is not just a tool that contributes to global food security, it is a tool that mankind can use to help minimize our environmental footprint.
- The United States is the world’s largest producer of biotech crops. The biotech crops exported from the Untied States are the same as those eaten every day by 300 million Americans.
(02/29/08)
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