Brussels, Belgium
January 12, 2009
Keystone Alliance introduces an
innovative model to measure agriculture’s environmental impact
Today, the Keystone Alliance for
Sustainable Agriculture released Field to Market, a
first-of-its-kind report that quantifies the environmental,
socio-economic, and health impacts of U.S. agriculture over the
last 20 years.
“The initial analysis by the Keystone Alliance shows that over
the last 20 years, U.S. agriculture has become more efficient in
utilizing resources and increasing productivity, while
decreasing its impact on the environment,” said Howard L.
Minigh, president and CEO of
CropLife International. “Field to Market is an excellent
model for illustrating the impact agricultural advancements can
have in achieving sustainable agriculture. Our industry believes
it can become a standard worldwide for measuring agriculture’s
impact.”
Field to Market quantifies the impact of corn, soy, cotton, and
wheat production on land use, water use, energy use, soil loss,
and the climate between 1987 and 2007. The plant science
industry has made significant contributions to agriculture
during this time period, which have supported the following
progress towards sustainable agriculture:
- Preserving topsoil through
conservation tillage is enabled by herbicides and biotech
crops, as well as direct seeding equipment. Conservation
tillage can help reduce soil erosion by an estimated 50-98%
and also improves soil quality and moisture retention.
- Global fuel savings
associated with switching to conservation tillage farming
systems and less frequent passes in farm equipment over the
field made possible by biotech crops and the use of
broad-spectrum herbicides have prevented about 962 million
kg of carbon dioxide emissions — equivalent to removing
nearly half-a-million cars from the road. Cumulatively since
1996, the permanent carbon dioxide savings are equal to
removing 2.05 million cars off the road for one year (ISAAA,
2006).
- Crop protection products
have reduced losses due to weeds, insects and plant
diseases, making agriculture more productive and a much more
efficient user of land, water, and other resources.
- Since the introduction of
biotech crops in 1997, there has been a marked increase in
the consistency of yields. The most detailed study to date
shows that plant biotechnology helped increase U.S.
agricultural production by 8.34 billion pounds on 123
million acres in 2005 (NCFAP 2006).
“The world has limited resources
and the plant science industry is committed to doing its part to
improve agriculture’s use of water, fuel, and land. The number
one way to do this is to grow more crops per acre and to protect
harvests,” continued Minigh. "The plant science industry is here
to help with these goals by achieving more sustainable,
productive, and efficient crop production.”
“The work done by the Keystone Alliance shows that agriculture
is moving in the right direction in terms of reducing its
environmental impact. We agree that there is more work to be
done to examine other indicators such as water quality, quality
of life, and biodiversity, as well as to complete these
assessments in other countries,” said Minigh. “The effort to
create indicators will help agriculture work toward continued
improvement for the benefit of the environment.”
CropLife International is the global federation representing
the plant science industry. It supports a network of regional
and national associations in 91 countries, and is led by
companies such as BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences,
DuPont, FMC, Monsanto, Sumitomo and Syngenta. CropLife
International promotes the benefits of crop protection and
biotechnology products, their importance to sustainable
agriculture and food production, and their responsible use
through stewardship activities. |
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