Print This PageWhite Paper
Challenges for Agriculture, Environment, Farmers and Future Generations
A Perspective Offered by Monsanto Company
May 2008
What does sustainability look like for agriculture? Common use of the term “sustainability” began with the report entitled Our Common Future, published in 1987 by the World Commission on the Environment and Development1. It suggested that sustainable development is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This sounds like a reasonable proposition; however, recent headlines have called the outcome into question.
Photo taken in Illinois by Monsanto employee Atila Deak.
We are reminded that seven out of the last eight years, the world has consumed more grain than it produced, reducing inventories to historic lows and leading to significant food price inflation for the first time in decades. Energy prices have quadrupled over the past five years, with crude oil prices reaching their highest real prices in history2. Concern over global warming has surged, with experts noting the eight warmest years on record have all occurred in the last decade. The impact of these events and the global health crisis associated with HIV/AIDS are playing out in real time in Sub-Saharan Africa where average life expectancy is lower than it was in the late 1980s3.
What do these challenges mean for agriculture and what does agriculture offer those who care about sustainability? Over the past year, the senior leadership of Monsanto Company has increasingly discussed this question with farmers, policymakers, scientists, NGOs, and experts from academia and industry. What follows is what we have learned, thus far.
