This week we were pleased to see that researchers at Stanford University were finally able to put to rest the argument that conventional farming is bad for the planet. In fact, they found that modern farming REDUCED the amount of greenhouse gases entering the earth’s atmosphere by the end of the 20^th century. Other ag biotech news we liked this week:

Study finds that modern farming helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions

According to researchers at Stanford University, modern high-yield farming significantly reduced the amount of greenhouse gas emissions entering the Earth’s atmosphere by the end of the 20^th century. The study found that novel farming techniques prevented as much as the equivalent of 590 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. Any policy intended to lower the amount of greenhouse gas emissions into the Earth’s atmosphere, the researchers concluded, should entail the improvement of crop yields.

A Farmer’s Perspective on Sustainability (LISTEN)

Mike Geske, a corn farmer from the Bootheel of Missouri, sat down with Dave Russell of Brownfield AG News for America to provide a farmer’s point of view on sustainability. Geske, who participated in a panel discussion on sustainability in agriculture at the Ag Media Summit, stressed that an incorrect or closed-minded definition of sustainability could affect farmers’ access to the technology they need to do their job.

Anti-hunger activists named as laureates by World Food Prize

This week, the World Food Prize named the Rev. David Beckmann, a Lutheran minister and executive director of

Bread for the World, and Jo Luck, president and former CEO of Heifer International, as Nobel Peace Prize laureates for their work in preventing hunger. The prizes will be awarded at the Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa in October. Like CBI, Rev. Beckmann admired Dr. Borlaug and said after his passing, “No single person has contributed more to relieving world hunger than our friend, the late Norman Borlaug. Norman was truly the man who fed the world, saving up to a billion people from hunger and starvation.”

Environmental Sustainability provides analysis of biotech sector in India

Kamal Kishore Poria wrote a piece this week for the Environmental Sustainability blog in which he discusses the increasingly important role that biotechnology is playing in India. According to Poria, biotechnology provides India with opportunities to convert its diverse biological resources into employment opportunities and economic wealth.