Sitting in my cube, watching news about the Monsanto-BASF discovery of a drought tolerant gene in corn plants sweep like wildfire from the official news release, to numerous global media outlets, to all my “tweeps” on Twitter, was a full circle moment. Just over a month ago, I was at BASF World Headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany, with a group of fellow University of Illinois students learning about the collaboration between Monsanto and BASF; and now, their combined research efforts have resulted in a discovery that made it half way around the world to meet me in St. Louis. If that’s not proof of globalization in agriculture, I don’t know what is!
According to John Goette, Trait Licensing Lead for Global Agreements at Monsanto, the partnership between Monsanto and BASF began in March 2007 because both companies shared a common interest in improving the probability of success for the development of yield and stress traits. “The goal of the collaboration,” Goette said, “is find and develop the proverbial needle in the haystack.” Through the partnership, significantly greater resources are going in to the discovery effort -- including people, time, financial investment and experience. With more, higher quality resources, both companies have stronger odds of achieving quality results, ultimately finding that one gene out of 50,000 in the corn genome that could help drive the commitment to sustainable yield.
During my visit to BASF, value chain manager Andrew Beadle spoke highly of Monsanto. “It’s great to work with a leader in agriculture,” he said. “Monsanto has a strong position in this industry and does its job very well.” While BASF specializes in the identification of specific traits, the company admires Monsanto for its germplasm and experience in commercializing products. On the Monsanto side, Goette spoke of the partnership as “a match made in heaven.” According to Goette, together, the ag companies possess great synergy and they plan to utilize it to benefit their top priority -- the farmer.
It was fascinating to witness similar challenges and goals in two different ag companies from two different parts of the world. I was impressed by the level of communication and collaboration between Monsanto and BASF. According to Goette, both companies put a lot of time and thought into the terms of the collaboration and continue to interpret new challenges as a team. The investment is split 50/50 and both companies share recognition for yield and stress traits, regardless of who discovers the gene. From Ludwigshafen to St. Louis, it’s great to see the benefits of globalization at work in the agriculture industry. Congratulations to everyone from both companies who played a role in the first gene discovery of the collaboration between Monsanto and BASF.
According to John Goette, Trait Licensing Lead for Global Agreements at Monsanto, the partnership between Monsanto and BASF began in March 2007 because both companies shared a common interest in improving the probability of success for the development of yield and stress traits. “The goal of the collaboration,” Goette said, “is find and develop the proverbial needle in the haystack.” Through the partnership, significantly greater resources are going in to the discovery effort -- including people, time, financial investment and experience. With more, higher quality resources, both companies have stronger odds of achieving quality results, ultimately finding that one gene out of 50,000 in the corn genome that could help drive the commitment to sustainable yield.
During my visit to BASF, value chain manager Andrew Beadle spoke highly of Monsanto. “It’s great to work with a leader in agriculture,” he said. “Monsanto has a strong position in this industry and does its job very well.” While BASF specializes in the identification of specific traits, the company admires Monsanto for its germplasm and experience in commercializing products. On the Monsanto side, Goette spoke of the partnership as “a match made in heaven.” According to Goette, together, the ag companies possess great synergy and they plan to utilize it to benefit their top priority -- the farmer.
It was fascinating to witness similar challenges and goals in two different ag companies from two different parts of the world. I was impressed by the level of communication and collaboration between Monsanto and BASF. According to Goette, both companies put a lot of time and thought into the terms of the collaboration and continue to interpret new challenges as a team. The investment is split 50/50 and both companies share recognition for yield and stress traits, regardless of who discovers the gene. From Ludwigshafen to St. Louis, it’s great to see the benefits of globalization at work in the agriculture industry. Congratulations to everyone from both companies who played a role in the first gene discovery of the collaboration between Monsanto and BASF.
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