Innovation will drive GM crops, says Monsanto boss
Monsanto’s Colin Merritt recently gave a speech at a seminar organized by McDonalds and the Guild of Agricultural Journalists in the United Kingdom. The following article quotes Merritt as saying that people in Europe “would be foolish to dismiss the contribution biotech could make,” especially with all of the new technology and advancements in the field. Read more about his speech below.
C.S. Prakash
Innovation will drive GM crops, says Monsanto boss
Press and Journal
July 4, 2008
New innovations will speed up the acceptance of genetically modified crops to a doubting European audience, one of the bosses of biotech giant Monsanto told a seminar at the show.
Colin Merritt said with the rest of the world adopting GM there was growing pressure on Europe to speed up its approvals process and change its stance on what he viewed as a now proven – and safe – technology.
He told the seminar, organised by McDonalds and the Guild of Agricultural Journalists, that GM and molecular plant genetics were part of the solution to ensuring food security.
People would be foolish to dismiss the contribution biotech could make, part- icularly with breeders concentrating on producing new crops that used less water and nitrogen fertilisers and which could deliver health benefits by adding friendly fatty acids such as omega 3 into them.
Mr Merritt believed breeders could over the next 15-20 years more than double the current yields of a range of staple crops such as soya, oilseeds, cotton and soya.
