Monsanto: A Sustainable Climate Company?

If you read the NY Times or WPost in print, you’ve probably noticed over the past 6 months the regular full page ads that have been placed by Monsanto. Similar to the nuclear energy industry, Monsanto is seeking to re-frame and re-position food biotechnology as a “middle way” technology needed to adapt to climate change.

For example, one recent ad running at the NY Times headlines: “9 billion people to feed. A changing climate. NOW WHAT?” In smaller print the ad continues with these themes adding to it a narrative wrapped around social progress with the beneficiaries farmers and people:

Experts say we’ll need to double agricultural output by 2050 to feed a growing world. That’s challenge enough. But with a changing climate, the challenge becomes even greater. Providing abundant and accessible food means putting the latest science-based tools in farmers’ hands, including advanced hybrid and biotech seeds. Monsanto’s advanced seeds not only significantly increase crop yields, they use fewer key sources–like land and fuel–to do it. That’s a win-win for people, and the earth itself.

Producing more. Conserving more. Improving farmers’ lives. That’s sustainable agriculture. And that’s what Monsanto is all about.

THE WORLD’S FARMERS WILL NEED TO DOUBLE FOOD PRODUCTION BY 2050. BIOTECHNOLOGY CAN HELP. MONSANTO: imagine.