In his State of the Union address President Obama called for enhancing U.S. global competitiveness, especially in high-tech areas, where the U.S. clearly excels.
What most Americans probably don’t know is that one of civilization’s oldest and most basic activities has become one of the U.S.’s most innovative, tech-driven industries: agriculture.
Take the introduction of herbicide-tolerant seeds. In 1996 Monsanto began marketing the first genetically modified (GM) soybean seed. It was engineered to tolerate the spraying of Monsanto’s glyphosate-based weed killer known as Roundup. The patented Roundup Ready soybean seeds can be planted closer together, improving crop yield per acre and conservation, because weeds no longer have to be removed by hand after the soybeans germinate.
Roundup Ready seeds opened the door for an explosion of genetically engineered traits within various seeds to make them herbicide tolerant, pest and disease resistant, and even drought tolerant.
As a result, over the past 15 years the use of GM crops has exploded. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), there were about 366 million acres of GM crops worldwide in 2010, up about 10 percent from 2009. The U.S. accounts for about 45 percent of those crops. In 2011:
• Herbicide-tolerant plants represent 94 percent of the U.S. soybean acreage, 73 percent of cotton, and 72 percent of corn;
•Insect-resistant plants represent 75 percent of the cotton acreage and 65 percent of corn.
Both the GM seeds and the crops they produce have become huge U.S. export items. Monsanto estimates that its Roundup Ready seeds produced about 3.345 billion bushels of soybeans in the U.S. in 2010, exporting about 1.37 billion bushels.
However, patents only last a limited time; the initial Roundup Ready patent will expire in 2014, creating opportunities for other companies to introduce generic versions, and perhaps even “stack” the soybean seeds with other engineered traits, such as a pest-fighting gene. Currently there is no regulatory framework governing the transition to generic versions.
Without a basic agreement, things could quickly devolve into an adversarial process involving litigation and the threat of onerous regulation. Innovator companies are working cooperatively toward an agreement, but policy makers should begin considering these issues if we want to ensure U.S. global dominance in an industry where we are a net exporter and the technology (and the jobs) are all homegrown.
January 26, 2012