During his keynote address at the 2010 Commodity Classic, U.S. Secretary of
Agriculture Tom Vilsack credited biotechnology for recent achievements in American agriculture.
Comparing agriculture in this country to gold medal winners and hall of fame inductees,
Vilsack talked about the amazing productivity of our producers. “These are people who plant 240 million acres of our land, they are the most productive farmers in the world,” Vilsack said. “They help to produce 108 billion pounds of protein a year that feed 300 million Americans and many millions around the world. In my lifetime, they have gone from one farmer feeding 20 folks, to one farmer feeding 150 folks. They’re responsible for a trade surplus at a time when we talk mostly about trade deficits.”
Vilsack credited scientific technologies with helping to bring about these positive changes in
ag production.Science cannnot be denied, but we have to do a better job of promoting that
science ‘of making sure people understand the benefits of that science’ talking about the
importance of biotechnology.” We need a concerted approach to biotechnology.”
A podcast of Vilsack’s speech is posted at
http://precisionpays.com/2010/03/agriculture-secretary-at-commodity-classic.
