Biotechnology: Catalyst for Change in Agriculture

tation of productive new technologies that provide more food, shelter, and industrial materials for an expanding world population. Agricultural output needed to produce an abundant food supply for nations where economies and distribution systems are adequate is currently achieved on approximately six million square miles of cultivated land, the same land use as in 1950, despite a doubling in world population throughout this period. Such expanding productivity, on constant or even diminishing agricultural land, is an essential component of the sustainable agricultural system we all hope to develop. It can only be achieved through continued scientific discovery to improve germplasm and production practices throughout the world. There is no greater opportunity today to accomplish this than through the application of biotechnology. Increased global information exchange, international trade, and rapid innovation in many areas of technology — especially biotechnology — are now contributing to an evolution in the world agricultural industry, through which substantial enhancement in our industry will occur much faster than ever before. We will see more rapid improvement and global distribution of germplasm and production practices, and we must prepare to deal with entirely novel applications for agricultural land use. More so than any previous agricultural technology infusion, biotechnology will impact all elements of the industry, all associated industries, and all of interfacing society. The increased speed and the extreme breadth of current change make this a particularly unsettling time. Now, as never before, there is need for industry, academia, and consumer interests to cooperate in the identification and management of issues generated by this new technology. We must deal with new laws and regulations, new products and industry practices, and entirely new agricultural uses that will emerge as the potential of biotechnology is realized. Biotechnology: Catalyst for Change in Agriculture