events 2009
 |
Jack Bobo, the U.S. State Department special advisor
on biotechnology. Photo Michal Štichauer |
Czech and American Farmers Meet with Scientists
October 5, 2009 — Over 90 farmers, food and feed industry representatives, scientists and policy makers met in the Prague’s Marriott hotel at the conference Biotechnology – Feeding the Future to discuss global challenges, September 19, on ensuring resources for food, feed and energy production and also to address climate change.
The session was opened by Chargé d’Affaires Mary Thompson Jones, who told the group that food security is a priority for the American Government and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Secretary Clinton recently traveled to Africa to meet with Ministers of Agriculture and convened a meeting with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon during the latest U.N. general assembly in New York. In food security today, the U.S. position now is that poor, rural farmers in Africa, Asia, and other regions, need to grow more of their own food. Chargé Thompson-Jones explained that the globe will have to produce more food with less water and land each year. Crop biotechnology can be a part of the solution, she said.
President of the Czech Agrarian Chamber, Jan Veleba, expressed his hope that more science and innovation will push the Czech farmers ahead to better compete. He commented on the difficulties agricultural biotechnology faced with policy makers and politicians inside Europe. President Veleba said that after traveling to the United States he was convinced of the need for Czechs to be more active across Europe to get access to newer and better technology for their farms.
Jack Bobo, the U.S. State Department special advisor on biotechnology said that over time Europe would accept GMOs. He said that it wasn’t accurate to think that Europe had rejected the technology. He said, more than thirty types of plant GMOs had been accepted in Europe for feed and food use. Three of the world’s top six companies that perform research and sell seeds are European companies. Bobo added that for the globe it was important to know that the technology can help address water shortages. GM plants are healthier and so use water more effectively. Specific varieties are now in field trial that work to conserve water. Achieving the goal of doubling food production by 2030 will mean adapting plant to new climates and helping the poor grow better crops. Other initiatives are needed to sustain the fight for food security, such as helping farmers use and market their crops, but helping to increase their yields and reduce pest and plant disease problems is part of the solution. Mr. Bobo said that people need to evaluate GMO technology and other production methods equally. GM crops are tested for their safety, but conventional crops, even ones created by mutagenesis through radiation or with toxic chemicals are not tested for safety. We know more about biotechnology crops than we know about conventional technology, he said.
Czech scientist Josef Spak presented the white paper on agricultural biotechnology. Available in English, at http://www.bc.cas.cz/MOBITAG.html?White-Book-on-GMO Czech scientists have banded together to ask policy makers to use the principles of sound science to make decisions about GMOs. The book is comprehensive, shows the real benefits of the technology and begins with the preface, “The history of major human discoveries shows that fundamentalistic ideology, ignorance, and greed often suppress the truth, but only for a certain period of time. This book was prepared with the desire to shorten the period of false apprehension of GM crops in Europe. The White Paper, Professor Spak explained, lays out clearly the science that supports the technology safety.
Czech Ministry of Agriculture and Environment officials shared regulators’ viewpoints that the Ministries supported biotechnology but each was clear that the Czech Republic will abide by EU law and regulatory guidance on such topics. Due to the heavy regulatory nature of the program for GMO cultivation, planted area of Bt corn in the Czech Republic declined in 2009.
A highlight of the conference was information sharing between Czech and U.S. farmers. Iowa, the globe’s leader in corn production was represented by farmer Varel Bailey. With a 300 hectare corn and soybean farm, Mr. Bailey explained how biotechnology has helped develop crop management systems for his enterprise. He discussed how there is amazing opportunity for competition, with hundreds of choices from seed dealers. Mr. Bailey showed how biotechnology has helped him conserve water, fight soil erosion, and reduce tilling on his farm. He shared where the technology is going, showing the two dozen or more varieties of corn and soybeans that are on the way to market through the regulatory chain. Mr. Bailey explained that he gets a better deal on his crop insurance payments because using GM crops guarantees him a better return.
South African farmer, Andries Botha, explained how his country has benefitted from biotechnology. Botha explained that the technology was useful to the small farmers. That 20,000 farmers planting 37,000 hectares, or about 1.3 hectacre farms, had responded positively to a survey that Bt corn and cotton had added to their yields and profitability.
Other speakers, Jill Euken, of Iowa State University, explained how biotechnology is an important component of the future of biofuels. Cellulosic biofuels in new generations of technology will come from crops adapted to use as energy. Using GMO corn today in biofuels means that since the corn is healthier and cleaner, ethanol is of a higher quality and the feed component byproducts are also better quality, containing less mycotoxins. The use of corn in ethanol has not come at the expense of the quantity of feedstocks that Iowa is producing since yields have been trending upwards in the United States.
Participants agreed that biotechnology can be one of the efficient tools helping solve lack of resources for growing population. Global population is projected to rise to 9 billion by 2050 and nearly one billion of these people will be food insecure.
Related Stories:
Related Links:
Embassy Information
Embassy Events
Events 2009
Liberation by U.S. Armed Forces
Events 2008
Events 2007
Events 2006
Events 2005
