Seed Today - Q2 2008 - (Page 4)

Editor’s Note Look Who’s Coming to Dinner A Publication of Country Journal Publishing Company 3065 Pershing Ct • Decatur, IL 62526 217-877-9660 • FAX: 217-877-6647 www.seedtoday.com joe@seedtoday.com Joe W. Funk Editor Deb Coontz Publisher/Sales Manager/Circulation Jody Sexton Production Manager/Assistant Editor Rod Horve Art Director Sy McElvain Bookkeeper As the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) looks back to celebrate 125 years, I wonder what the next 25 or 50 or 75 years will bring, not to mention the next 125. Consider, for a moment, how alien 2008 is from what was known when the ASTA formed in 1883. Those seedsmen knew nothing about hyJoe W. brid vigor, inoculants, or DNA, or chromosomes. Think, for example, how much computers have evolved in just the past 20 years since I bought my first computer— a portable KayPro with two 5.25-inch double-sided, single-density floppy drives and 256Kb of memory. The box I have at my desk today is the equivalent of a 1988 super-computer. Who could have imagined? Looking Forward Where we are now with biotech traits is not too different from where we were with computers 20 years ago. Given the rate at which our knowledge and understanding of molecular biology, genetics and cell science is increasing, who can imagine what the future holds? Simply put, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Begin your look forward by considering what will not change. Near-term world population will continue to increase. Baring a global pandemic or nuclear holocaust, the standard of living for multitudes will continue to increase with rising demand for food, especially high protein food. Food production per unit of land must continue to increase. The current spike in food prices and drawdown of global grain reserves foreshadows the urgency of producing more food faster for a growing world population. While biotechnology alone may not provide the means to solve all our food problems, it will certainly deliver a huge chunk of the increase needed to feed 9.22 billion people in 2075 when the United Nations projects global population will peak. Today (May 2008) the world population is estimated to be 6.6 billion. In order for population not to exceed the world’s carrying capacity, new, better adapted and more efficient plants are needed to produce Funk more and better food. Through biotechnology, plants for food and feed must be modified to produce grain that is within itself a more complete and more balanced nutritional product. Likewise, there is need for plants to produce inexpensive food crops that are specially altered to fit the exact nutritional and pharmaceutical needs of those with diabetes, unsafe water supplies and untamed pests and pestilences. Jeff Miller, Mark Avery Sales GM—An Absolute Necessity Already, the rate of increase for world population has slowed, but the still growing masses cannot wait for the 30-year yield trendline to feed their hungry mouths because the rate of increase for food production has also slowed. One concern that is certain to become more problematic is the large areas of once productive cropland that is losing carrying capacity as salts accumulate in the soil’s surface layers and diminish productivity. Those who believe that traditional cropping methods can adequately feed the 9.22 billion people coming to dinner in 2075 are simply mistaken. Conventional 19th century technology did not sustain us for the past 100 years, why should we believe that conventional 20th century technology will sustain us for the next 100 years? Joe W. Funk, editor joe@seedtoday.com Seed Today is published quarterly and mailed to members of the following seed associations: • American Seed Trade Association • Independent Professional Seedsmen Association • Southern Seedsmen’s Association • Western Seed Association • Atlantic Seedsmen’s Association • Northern Seed Trade Association • Pacific Seed Association The magazine is free of charge to qualifying individuals in the United States and Canada. Foreign subscription rate is $60 per year. Brought to you by the publishers of Grain Journal, Milling Journal, BioFuels Journal and industry specific F.Y.I. e-newsletters. 4 Second Quarter 2008 http://www.seedtoday.com http://www.seedtoday.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Seed Today - Q2 2008

Seed Today - Q2 2008 Contents Editor’s Notes Cover Feature IKR BÁBOLNAMAG AOSA/SCST Gary Biel Bill Latham According to ASTA AOSCA Origin AgriTech Ltd. Pipeline Auditec Power Seeds, Inc RSI Systems LLC Mill & Elevator Supply Co. Agronomix Software, Inc Green Age® Products and Services USDA Crop Projections Buyers’ Guide Ad Index

Seed Today - Q2 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.