Whenever I see former President Clinton, I’m reminded that we share a couple of things in common: We’ve both had heart bypass surgery, and we both need to eat healthier food.
That’s one of the reasons we share a third thing in common: We’re both strong supporters of biotech-enhanced food.
And it’s not merely out of self interest. As Clinton made clear in Chicago last week, when he addressed the BIO 2006 International Annual Convention, everyone benefits when modern science helps us improve our food supply: “The first obligation of society is to feed its people,” he said. “Biotechnology can help us feed more people while addressing environmental concerns such as global climate change.”
Agriculture was a major theme of the convention: There was a 1,000-plant indoor cornfield, almost at the center of the hall. Previous gatherings have been held on the coasts (last year it was in Philadelphia, next year it will be in Boston), and pharmaceutical themes have dominated. This time, it was in the Midwest and there was a special emphasis on agriculture.
Farmers from around the world were on hand to discuss their personal success stories. My conversations with several of them, from Romania, Argentina, India, and the Philippines, reaffirmed in my own mind the reality that farm biotechnology is scale neutral--that is, it delivers important advantages to everyone, including small-time farmers who are simply trying to eke out a living for themselves and their families. Biotechnology sometimes gets a bum rap for helping corporations reap enormous profits at the expense of the little guy. Nothing could be further from the truth, and there’s no way anybody could believe this after spending a little time discussing the issue with the growers who attended this event.
Clinton’s speech, delivered on April 11, was perhaps the highlight of the whole convention. It won’t go down in history as Lincolnesque, but it was vintage Clinton--full of energy, wide-ranging, thought-provoking, masterful with details, and of course occasionally partisan. He spoke for about 45 minutes, apparently without a text or notes. From that standpoint alone, I found it to be a remarkable performance.
But the substance of the speech was even better: “I plead guilty to supporting the development of genetic engineering and agriculture, as long as we subject all the results to proper testing and continuous monitoring.”
That’s precisely my own view. I was reminded that Clinton was president at a crucial moment for agricultural biotechnology: ten years ago, it was just becoming commercialized. A different type of president--say, a European one--might have found a way to smother biotech crops in their infancy. But Clinton did no such thing. He comes from Arkansas, a farm state, and he understands how food is produced and why emerging technologies have a role to play: “If anybody could give me any evidence why I shouldn’t [support agricultural biotechnology], I’d be happy to change my position. But failing evidence, I think the use of agricultural technology, which uses less fertilizer, takes better care of the soil, increases productivity, and could be transferred at low cost through seeds to poor farmers in developing countries, is a good thing. We need more people to be able to grow their own food and feed themselves.” Clinton’s words are supported by most farmers.
He also understands that farming isn’t just about food production anymore--it’s also about energy: “In the fuel area, clearly, we need to go to biofuels. We need to move to a biofuel future. And in my opinion, need to move to a biofuel future based more on cellulistic fuels than corn, which is a principal contributor to ethanol now. Why? Because the conversion ratio is better. If the goal is not only to have clean fuels but to reduce the use of greenhouse gases, then you want stuff that’s lying around anyway, that you didn’t have to burn oil to produce in the first place.”
Clinton was wise to embrace the biotech future when he was president, and he is wise to continue embracing it today: It will lead to a safer, cleaner, healthier, and more prosperous world for everybody.
Dean Kleckner is an Iowa farmer and past president of the American Farm Bureau. He currently chairs Truth About Trade and Technology.
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Whenever I see former President Clinton, I’m reminded that we share a couple of things in common: We’ve both had heart bypass surgery, and we both need to eat healthier food.
