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Moderated conference on GMOs in the pipeline, hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum in 2012

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Biotech-Mod2 <[log in to unmask]>
Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:10:33 +0100
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This is Tom Nickson. I work for Monsanto Company based in St. Louis, Missouri. I have worked in this company for over 30 years and have over 20 years of experience in regulatory for biotech crops. My principle expertise are in environmental risk assessment and policy having worked on the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, Convention on Biological Diversity and most recently the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and agriculture.  

In keeping with the theme of this conference, I share with you links to information from the private sector (noting that a colleague from BIO has already made a posting, in Message 13). In particular, Monsanto shares publicly a lot of information on its pipeline, which can be found at: http://www.monsanto.com/products/Pages/research-development-pipeline.aspx .  

I wish to highlight the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project, which is a good example of how public-private partnerships are tackling some of the challenges of getting improved technologies into developing countries. This project is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with in-kind support from Monsanto and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and the project is led by the African Agricultural Technologies Foundation (AATF, http://www.aatf-africa.org/wema/). WEMA uses a strategy of deploying both GM and non-GM technologies.  

In the near term (over the next 5 year) and given the limited investment in agriculture occurring in many developing countries, public-private partnerships financed by philanthropic and in-kind contributions will be an important vehicle to advance biotechnology traits/crops into the developing world. In addition, institutions like the Donald Danforth Plant Sciences Center (www.danforthcenter.org) are working hard to develop biotech-based traits like improved biofortification, nutritional enhancement and virus/disease resistance in developing world relevant crops like rice, cassava and banana.    

Finally, based on some of the contributions to this conference, there appears to be interest in accessing information related to existing biotech products and those that are under development (and the information is publicly available). Here is a link that will provide valuable information. One can subscribe to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) and receive regular updates: http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/default.asp  
 
Thomas E. Nickson, Ph.D.
International Policy Lead
Monsanto Law Department E1NH
800 N. Lindbergh Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63167
United States
www.monsanto.com 
www.isbr.info 
office:  314-694-2179
cell:      314-422-8635
fax:     314-694-1622
e-mail: thomas.nickson (at) monsanto.com 

[To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] For further information on this FAO Biotechnology Forum, see http://www.fao.org/biotech/biotech-forum/]

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