Feb 19, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO – "Modern agriculture depends on safe and effective crop protection for today, and to feed a world population of more than 9 billion by 2050, we'll need even better technology," said CropLife America (CLA) president Jay Vroom in remarks at the 2010 InformEx trade show in San Francisco. "While crop protection is a small segment of the overall global chemistry industry, our sector is one of the most intensive in innovative research and our farm customers create some of the highest value-added outcomes you can find anywhere in the U.S. economy." InformEx is the leading trade show for the fine chemicals industry in North America and is supported by the entire high value chemistry industry.
"American farmers lead the world in adopting innovative technology to improve productivity and reduce their environmental footprint, and their use of our crop protection products is one of the best examples of innovation you can find in food production," Vroom noted. "We will soon release a study of the investment our industry makes in developing new, innovative products, and that data will show that the investment in research and development for each new crop protection product by our members has increased by about 30% over the last five years -- a clear demonstration of our commitment to finding tomorrow's solutions for crop protection."
Vroom also explained that conservation tillage is one of the premier environmental services benefits made possible through the careful and responsible application of crop protection products. "Modern herbicide technology is absolutely essential to U.S. farmer adoption of conservation tillage systems --which in turn reduces the loss of millions of tons of soil erosion each year -- keeping soils in place to produce robust crops and preventing damage to lakes, streams and rivers from soil siltation."
Other panelists at the InformEx session also spoke of the value of crop protection technology contributing to water use efficiency in growing crops, particularly relevant in water-starved California. Herbicides eliminate weeds that take water away from growing crops, and insect-control products keep plants healthier and better able to make best use of available water from natural or irrigated sources. The InformEx session also focused attention on the important role of science-based, consistent regulation of crop protection products, which helps assure the public that these products are effective and safe. "For more than 100 years the U.S. has had a regulatory system for our industry based in the rule of law as passed by Congress," Vroom observed. "Without strong regulators at the Federal and state levels reviewing the scientific studies of our products, the public could not have the confidence in our system of safety insurance that we enjoy. Our industry supports the predictable, risk-assessment regulatory framework in place across the country."
Vroom also noted the important role of fine chemicals to the crop protection industry. "Your sector is in general the supplier of intermediate chemistry to crop protection producers -- and you also supply essential inert ingredient products essential to the overall formulated product portfolio-offering of our segment. Much innovation is also occurring in the intermediate and inerts business that also adds value to our marketplace, and is helping also to respond to EPA and other regulatory inquiries. Together we all will be able to respond to demands to keep providing newer and better solutions to the crop protection needs of the farmers that feed us today, and that we count on to meet food production needs of the future."
