Boston, Massachussets
May 7, 2007
DuPont (NYSE: DD) today urged the world's largest gathering
of biotechnology leaders to ensure the availability
of the genetic material needed to develop crops that will meet
the unforeseen challenges of future generations.
"Biotechnology will help us
develop solutions to challenges that we have yet to imagine, but
the potential will be limited without access to historic genetic
resources," said Stephen Smith, a DuPont scientist and leading
expert
on plant genetic diversity, at the BIO 2007 International
Convention.
DuPont was one of the first
companies to pledge $1 million to the
Global Crop Diversity Trust,
an international fund charged with securing long-term funding
for the support of genebanks and crop genetic diversity
collections
throughout the world. Just recently, the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation pledged their support for the Trust's mission with a
$30 million grant and the government of Norway raised its
donation to $15 million.
"The conservation and availability
of crop diversity is absolutely critical to assuring an abundant
and affordable food supply for people everywhere," said Cary
Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust.
"If we continue to neglect crop genetic diversity, it will be
lost forever."
Founded in 2001 by the United
Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and Bioversity
International, on behalf of the Consultative Group on
International Agriculture Research (CGIAR), the Trust is raising
a $260 million endowment to maintain the world's most critical
germplasm for agricultural crops as well as building the
capacity of crucial collections in developing countries.
"As researchers in the public and
private sector gain a better understanding of the genetic
language of crops, we will be better suited to use the latest
biotech tools, such as genomics and molecular markers, to
develop solutions to the challenges of future generations," said
Smith. "If plant genetic resources are not properly conserved,
it will be like learning how to read and then going to the
library to find no books on the shelves."
Funding from the Global Crop
Diversity Trust will support the operations of a "doomsday
vault" built into the permafrost in the Norwegian Arctic that
will have the capacity to store three million seed samples,
representing a
vast range of genetic variety from the world's key crops. The
complex is intended to safeguard the global food supply in the
event of disaster.
The mission of the Global Crop
Diversity Trust is to ensure the conservation and availability
of crop diversity for food security worldwide. Although crop
diversity is fundamental to fighting hunger and to the very
future of agriculture, funding for conservation is unreliable
and diversity is being lost. An independent international
organization, established through a partnership between the
CGIAR and FAO, the Trust is the only organization working
worldwide to solve this problem.
DuPont is a science-based
products and services company. Founded in 1802, DuPont puts
science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a
better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating
in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of
innovative products and services for markets including
agriculture and food; building and construction; communications;
and transportation.
More news about the
Global Crop Diversity Trust |
