We Are in the Midst of a New Green Revolution

In the 1960s Norman Borlaug developed a new variety of wheat that helped Mexico, Pakistan, and India become more food secure. He’s credited with saving more than 1 billion lives and was declared “the father of the Green Revolution.”

More than half a century later, the industry is undergoing a new green revolution, this one driven by consumers demanding to know more about where their food comes from, technology, increased regulatory oversight, and yes, fear about traditional crop inputs and the effects they have on human health – most notably glyphosate.

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However misguided and anti-science that fear might be, it has the potential to generate enormous disruption to the industry. There’s an old saying that perception is reality. The danger posed by glyphosate is real to those who ignore the science. And so far, their collective voice has been had the power to trump the data.

Even without that anti-science bias, consumers have become more savvy, and the internet has given them unprecedented insight into supply chains. They’re demanding to know not only where their food is coming from, but also how it’s being grown and what inputs are being used. Combine that with a push by regulatory bodies to outright ban or at the very least make it more difficult to register products and it’s easy to see that traditional crop inputs are going to continue to be hit hard.

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Those movements have added momentum to solutions that have already been in the works, many for decades – precision agriculture, biological pesticides, biostimulants, genetic modification, robotics – but only in the past few years have really started to come into their own. Many companies have explored developing their own products, licensing from other businesses, partnering with or acquiring products or businesses with new technology.

Traditional crop inputs won’t be going anywhere soon. Biological products work as a complement to the products growers have used for decades. These other new technologies, too, will certainly impact the amount of crop inputs used over the next several years.

We’re entering a new Green Revolution driven again by technology and supported by consumers and governments demanding fewer traditional crop inputs. We look forward to seeing how this revolution will change the industry. There’s a saying (some say an old Chinese curse) that goes: “May you live in interesting times.”

I’m not sure if it’s a curse or not, but it certainly seems the next few years could be the most “cursed” we’ve seen in a long time.

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