Godfather of GMOs Wants Consumers to Be Less Afraid of His Food
Godfather of GMOs Wants Consumers to Be Less Afraid of
His Food
Lydia Mulvany 4 August 2018, 5:48 PM
(Bloomberg) -- Three decades ago, Robert T. Fraley helped
invent the genetically modified seeds that have become a $17 billion global
industry and ushered in a new era of agricultural productivity. So it’s little
surprise that this longtime Monsanto Co. executive doesn’t want the crops
dubbed Frankenfood, which is what critics like to call them.
Fraley retired in June as Monsanto’s chief technology
officer but says he will continue to be an evangelist for the scientific
advancements that he says turbo-charged harvests and helped farmers stay a few
steps ahead of Mother Nature. GMOs have become Fraley’s legacy, and he’s
convinced the world will need more such innovations to keep pace with the
demand for more food as populations and incomes grow.
“There are so many examples where science can be slowed
down or thwarted because of inaccurate information,” such as the efficacy of
vaccines or the impacts of climate change, Fraley, 65, said by telephone from
Monsanto headquarters in St. Louis. “We’re living in a time where there’s
spectacular advances, and the biggest challenge is making sure they can benefit
consumers.”
In the past six years, Fraley has ramped up his public
appearances and his presence on social media. The goal was to become the
friendly face of GMO seeds and foods, and to help the public understand and
accept scientific advances that are occurring “at a fantastic pace.” At stake,
he says, is global food security and the reduction of agriculture’s
environmental footprint.
It’s also a crucial growth opportunity for Monsanto,
which was acquired this year by Bayer AG for $66 billion. The deal closed in
June, making Monheim, Germany-based Bayer the largest maker of seeds and
agricultural chemicals. Fraley, who earned $5.3 million last year, according to
company documents, plans to remain a consultant for Bayer through the end of
the year. After that, he’ll continue advocating for the technology.
Biotech products accounted for 34 percent of the global
crop-protection market and 30 percent of the commercial seed market, according
to Cropnosis. GMO crops and seeds could be worth $36.7 billion by 2022,
Transparency Market Research estimates. Monsanto’s seed sales, most of which
were genetically modified, were a record $11 billion in its 2017 fiscal year.
Fraley, who grew up on a farm in Hoopeston, Illinois,
joined Monsanto at 27 with a Ph.D. in microbiology and biochemistry. He worked
on a team that successfully inserted foreign genes into plants in the early
1980s. The result was a sales blockbuster: seeds that tolerate the company’s
powerful glyphosate-based herbicide known as Roundup. Today, more than 90
percent of U.S. soybean and corn crops are grown with Roundup Ready seeds
modified to withstand the chemical.
GMO ‘Hysteria’
“If it hadn’t been for the hysteria against GMOs, he
should have won the Nobel Prize in chemistry by now,” said Jonas Oxgaard, an
analyst who covered Monsanto at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. “He largely
built the science side of Monsanto.”
To be sure, GMO technology isn’t without its critics, who
say there isn’t enough research to understand the longer-term impact of
altering the genetic makeup of the food. While there’s no evidence GMOs have
adverse health effects of any kind, farmers are banned from using GMO seeds in
many European countries and in Russia, though most allow the crops to be
imported.
While the public has embraced advances in molecular
genetics in other industries like medicine, it’s been a more difficult path for
food. U.S. consumers on average oppose genetically modified food and many pay
premiums for non-GMO products. Some of that reluctance stems from the early
days of the technology, in the 1990s, when there was less transparency in food
labeling.
Innovation Investments
Still, Bayer sees wider acceptance of such technology as
a key to future growth, along with new investments in digital tools for
agriculture.
Imaging and sensor technology are harnessing precise data
and transforming the way farmers make decisions about planting and harvesting,
Fraley said. What people eat will become increasingly customized as technology
makes it possible to develop all kinds of “consumer-friendly and interesting
foods,” he said.
Monsanto Growth Ventures, a company-controlled investment
vehicle that acquired farm-technology developer Climate Corp. for $930 million
in 2013, may become even more active under Bayer.
“The opportunity to create partnerships and make
acquisitions is significant,” Fraley said. “So efforts we started with Monsanto
Growth Ventures need to accelerate and morph in the new company to take
advantage of the incredible wave of innovations coming into ag.”
Better Yields
Fraley has been replaced in the CTO job by his
hand-picked successor, Bob Reiter, who will work in Germany. Fraley said he
will remain in the St. Louis area, where his family is based. He has a second
home in Colorado as well as some farm and ranchland around the Midwest.
Applying biotechnology to agriculture has been Fraley’s
most-visible legacy, but he says there’s been an even bigger contribution to
farm science: modernizing and integrating advanced plant-breeding tools that
are boosting yields. Breeding is now gene-by-gene, and combinations that were
never possible before are now common, from higher-yielding corn plants to
better-tasting tomatoes. When he left his father’s farm in the early 1970s,
corn harvests were typically 75 bushels an acre. Today, they’re 175 bushels an
acre and rising.
Monsanto “has gotten credit and criticism for what it’s
done,” Fraley said. “But the wiring of the company has been geared to use
technology to make farmers more productive and profitable, and to use these
tools to address food security. That’s been our legacy -- I’m proud of that.”
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
Comments
Post a Comment