Print This PageAgriculture Can Help Keep Carbon in Balance
Monsanto Products and Carbon Sequestration
Monsanto products help farmers to meet the challenges of climate change head on.
Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Crops: These products promote the use of conservation tillage systems by reducing the need to till the soil to achieve weed control. The Conservation Technology Information Center has credited biotech crops with increased con-till acreage since their introduction (see chart below).18 A similar study by the American Soybean Association showed that reduced tillage practices with soybeans — triggered in large part by biotech crops — saved 247 million tons of irreplaceable topsoil in 2000. Conservation tillage reduced the number of times a farmer had to run equipment over the field, saving 234 million gallons of fuel.19
Monsanto’s Insect-Resistant Crops: Biotech products
such as YieldGard Corn Borer corn, YieldGard Rootworm corn,
and Bollgard II reduce the need for pesticide applications, which
also reduces diesel emissions from application machinery.
Biofuels: Monsanto
supplies important tools to corn farmers who sell to the ethanol market. In
addition to yield improvements that allow farmers to get more corn from each
field, we also offer our Processor Preferred High Fermentable Corn
line of high-starch hybrids, which yield more ethanol. In addition, the company
is collaborating with Perten Instruments on tools that will help make ethanol
facilities more efficient in producing both ethanol and dry distillers grains,
a byproduct of the ethanol process that is used as livestock feed.
Future Products: In the pipeline are several products intended to address climate change and help farmers cope with other stressors.
Drought-tolerance genes would allow crops to deliver strong yields with less water. In corn, the first generation drought-tolerance trait is currently in its fifth season of tests at multiple sites. Drought-tolerance genes are expected to protect and possibly increase crop yields in areas with moderate drought stress, while reducing irrigation costs. In 2007, Monsanto began to work with BASF to develop high-yielding crops and crops that are more tolerant to adverse conditions such as drought. The two companies expect to generate more viable research projects together than either could alone. The companies hope to accelerate the introduction of new products, bringing a greater number of traits to the market at a faster speed.
Nitrogen-efficiency genes would allow farmers to increase the efficiency of fertilizer, so that more is used by the crop and less is left in the soil to form greenhouse gases or to run off into waterways.
More efficient nitrogen use will also reduce fertilizer costs, which are typically about a fifth of corn farm operating costs. Monsanto in October 2007 announced a collaboration with Evogene Ltd. to develop genes that will help corn, soy, canola, and cotton plants maintain yield with less nitrogen.
MONSANTO ANNOUNCES ITS COMMITMENT TO REDUCE CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS, JOINS CHICAGO CLIMATE EXCHANGE
In 2007,
Monsanto joined the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), North America’s only
voluntary, legally binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction, registry, and
trading program.
As part of its agreement, by 2010 Monsanto will reduce its own direct carbon emissions at major U.S. manufacturing sites by 6 percent from its 2000 levels or purchase carbon emission offsets as specified in the CCX contract. “Our job is to help farmers improve their productivity while using resources judiciously,” said Jerry Steiner, executive vice president at Monsanto. “Reducing our own carbon emissions is a start. But we believe our bigger value is through products that help farmers practice conservation tillage and increase yields to meet growing food and fuel needs, while they maintain or even improve the environment.”
Depending on their farming practices, farmers can actually reduce carbon dioxide in the air. Plants take in carbon dioxide and use it to build roots, stalks, grain, and other parts. If farmers minimally till their fields before planting, much of that carbon remains in the soil. Farmers can sell this sequestered carbon as credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange. “This incentive encourages more farmers be an integral part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Steiner said.
