CropLife International

Paving the Way for Innovation in Plant Science

A message from Howard Minigh and Markus Heldt CropLife International’s member companies continue to be committed to research and development for new crop protection and plant biotechnology products and technologies despite a challenging economic environment. As the world’s population increases, the industry has a responsibility to provide innovative choices and solutions to help farmers meet […]

Overlooking Scientific Roots of Endocrine Disruption

By Rainer von Mielecki vice president of Global Public & Government Affairs Crop Protection at BASF “The policy has been hijacked by industry,” said Axel Singhofen, environment and health adviser for the Green Party European Free Alliance, in Newsweek. “They seem to have forgotten the scientific roots of the problem and are much more concerned […]

Regulatory Predictability Needed for an Industry Committed to Innovation

By Howard Minigh, CropLife International President and CEO The crop protection industry helps millions of farmers grow their crops every year. From Asia to Africa and from Europe to the Americas, plant scientists are developing crop protection products to advance sustainable and productive agriculture to ensure global food security. We are a solutions-driven industry, but […]

Ask A Farmer: How Biotech Changes Lives

Interview with Bill Horan, family farmer and chief operating officer of Horan BioProduction For 43 years, Bill Horan has grown soybeans, corn, specialty crops and other grains on a family farm in North Central Iowa. He was an early adopter of biotech crops – he began growing GM soybeans a year before they were commercialized, […]

How Plant Biotechnology Made Brazil a Major Agriculture Exporter

From Importer to Exporter: How Plant Biotechnology Made Brazil a Major Agriculture Exporter Interview with Adriana Brondani, Executive Director, Conselho de Informações sobre Biotecnologia (CIB), Brazil Conselho de Informações sobre Biotecnologia (The Council for Biotechnology Information – or CIB), Brazil, is an association that shares accurate information about plant biotechnology and its benefits, especially to […]

Reflecting On Successes And Challenges Of Biotech Crops

20 Years Of Innovation: Reflecting On Successes And Challenges Of Biotech Crops Interview with Craig Rickard, executive director for plant biotechnology at CropLife International. This post was originally published by Forbes.com on 25 August 2016. In 1996, farmers planted the first commercial biotech crop. The global uptake of plant biotechnology by farmers since has made it the […]

Using Social Media to “Agvocate” for Farmers and Scientists

Using Social Media to “Agvocate” for Farmers and Scientists Interview with Dr. Lindsay Chichester Dr. Lindsay Chichester is one of a growing number of online “agvocates” who are sharing information about agriculture from the perspective of farmers and scientists. We caught up with her to learn more about her work, and how social media plays […]

Tackling Uganda’s Banana Crisis

Tackling Uganda’s Banana Crisis Interview with Mr. Erostus Nsubuga, founder and chairman of Agro-Genetic Technologies, Inc. (AGT) The banana is a very important part of the Ugandan diet with 70 percent of the population eating the fruit every day. However, as Banana Bacterial Wilt is devastating banana crops across the country, eradicating the disease has become […]

A History of Biotech in Europe and the Path Forward

Biotech in Europe: History and the Path Forward An interview with Beat Späth, Director for Agricultural Biotechnology at EuropaBio This year, the European Union approved three new biotech soya bean products for import. We spoke with Beat Späth, director for agricultural biotechnology at EuropaBio, about the history of plant science, what the new approvals mean […]

Farmers Find Their Voices

Farmers Find Their Voices Interview with Cherilyn Nagel, Farmer, Saskatchewan, Canada Tell us about yourself and your work. My family lives and works on our farm, where we raise our daughters and grow canola, durum, chickpeas and lentils. This past year, I’ve also been working with Farm and Food Care, a new association whose mandate […]

An Industry Committed to Helping Farmers Grow

An Industry Committed to Helping Farmers Grow By Robert Hunter, Executive Director, Crop Protection It is easy to understand why farmers need crop protection products when you consider that there are 30,000 weeds, 10,000 insects and 50,000 diseases competing with us for our food. In fact, without crop protection products it is estimated that 86 percent […]

Public-Private Partnerships: Eradicating Poverty Through Education

Public-Private Partnerships: Eradicating Poverty Through Education By Andy Medlicott, Executive Vice President, Latin American & Caribbean Region, Fintrac* If we want to eradicate rural poverty in the developing world, educating farmers and giving them modern tools and strategies is critical. In Honduras, public-private partnerships designed to deliver this education are bringing together development organizations, governments […]

Agriculture and Biodiversity Can Thrive Together

Biological diversity – or biodiversity – generally refers to the huge variety of life on planet Earth. Ahead of the International Day for Biological Diversity, on May 22, we spoke with Caroline Drummond MBE, Chief Executive at Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF)*, to ask how, with the help of Integrated Farm Management (IFM), agriculture and […]

Why Canada’s Farmers Choose Herbicide-Tolerant Canola

Ever since it was developed in 1995, herbicide-tolerant canola has quickly grown in popularity and today it is farmed on 99 percent of canola acres in Canada. We spoke to Dr. Curtis Rempel, Vice President of Crop Production & Innovation for the Canola Council of Canada, to find out why herbicide-tolerant canola is so popular […]

Good Agricultural Practices Increase Yields in Honduras

Good Agricultural Practices Increase Yields in Honduras Cecilia Mejía Domínguez, small-scale farmer, Honduras Farmer Cecilia Mejia Dominguez lives in western Honduras where she raises livestock and grows maize, potatoes and strawberries. Cecilia recently participated in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) ACESSO project, which provides training in good agricultural practices. In this video, Cecilia […]