Technology - It's Impact on the Consumer and You

1. Technology - It's Impact on the Consumer and You Mark Armfelt, DVM, DABVP

2. What Does Freedom to Choose Technology Offer You?

3. Objectives • Describe the impact technology has on productivity and efficiency • Discuss the impact of technology on the consumer • Protecting your right to choose technologies

4. Projection Growth Estimated at 9 Billion in 2050 Global Population Growth: Billions Source: United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 2004 Revision (2005).

5. Consumers Want • Economical food • Safe food • Abundant food • Sustainable agriculture

6. Technology, Productivity, and Efficiency

7. Technology - Crop “In 1950, total world production of all major cereal grains was about 620 million tons; in 2000, it was more than 1.9 billion tons. (With conventional technologies) we’d have had to cut down approximately three times as much forest or plowed up three times as much grazing land…to produce a harvest equivalent to 2000. That’s how much land high-yield technology saved for Mother Nature.” Norman Borlaug, Father of the Green Revolution

8. Cropland USDA, 2003

9. Cropland Availability

10. Sustainability – 2004 Grower Benefits • Incremental yield increase of 6.6 billionpounds • Reduction in production costs of $1.7 billion • Reduction in pesticide use by 64.6 million pounds • A net economic impact of $2.3 billion • Economic benefits in all 43 surveyed states where biotech crops were grown National Center for Food and Agriculture Policy’s (NCFAP)

11. Technology - Soybeans • Almost ½ of soybean growers have increased their no-till during the past 6 crop seasons (1996-2001) • 247 million tons of topsoil were saved in 2000 • 234 milliongallons of fuel was reduced in 2000 American Soybean Association

12. Technology - Beef • “If U.S. cattle producers were to attempt to produce the current beef supply with 1955 technology, we would need a cattle herd about 80% larger than that of today.”Gary Weber, PhD, executive director of regulatory affairs for National Cattleman’s Beef Association.

13. Technology - Dairy • Total milk production has increased by 50% since 1950 • Milk per cow has tripled since 1950 • Number of cows declined by 62% since 1950 • Annual milk production per person approaching 1,000,000# • Impact of milk testing and processing on dairy product safety

14. Limiting Technology - Wheat • Producers allowed processors to manage the market • Currently wheat has little long-term R & D investment potential • Lack of market opportunity for biotechnology and other traits

15. Technology and the Consumer

16. Consumers Want • Economical food • Safe food • Abundant food • Sustainable agriculture

17. Top-of-mind Food Safety Concerns - What, if anything, are you most concerned about when it comes to food safety? (Open-ended; Multiple responses allowed, n = 1000) Food Safety Concerns3/05 Handling/Preparation 42% Disease/Contamination (foodborne illness) 28% Ingredients (chemicals, preservatives, fats) 23% Packaging (expiration dates, packaging) 14% Chemicals/Pesticides 7% Biotechnology < ½ % International Food Information Council, 2005 IFIC 2005

18. Milk Safety - Consumers Marketing Horizons, Inc. (n=403 consumers across U.S.)

19. Hormones in Milk “The fact is, of course, that our own bodies make hormones on a daily basis, and we'd be dead without them. We consume all kinds of hormones in the foods we eat, organic or otherwise…In fact, soy “milk,” another high-priced competitor with real milk, has far more bioactive hormones than cow's milk.”Jerry Kozak, President and CEO, National Milk

20. Technology Safety - Science • Scientific Safety Reviews • World Health Organization • Food & Agricultural Organization of the United Nations • National Academy of Sciences • American Medical Association • U.S. Food and Drug Administration • Society of Toxicology • Institute of Food Technologists • American Cancer Society • National Institutes of Health • U.S. Surgeon General’s Office • American Dietetics Association

21. Abundant, Economical Food Source, USDA, 2003

22. Consumer’s Get - Productivity “Productivity is the reason we have more stuff than our grandparents had without working harder than they did…the productivity of the American worker is the envy of industrial countries around the world.” David Wessel, deputy Washington bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal

23. Abundant, Economical Food "For God’s sake, I’ve always said, ‘Use all the organic fertilizer that’s available, but don’t come around Third World nations telling them they can produce all the food they need with organic fertilizer.’ (If we tried to substitute manure for chemical fertilizer) we’d have to increase world cattle population by about six-fold...It’s a lot of nonsense, and it comes from people who’ve never produced one ton of food in their entire lifetime."Norman Borlaug, Father of the Green Revolution

24. Sustainability

25. Cropland

26. Consumer or Marketing?

27. Marketing – Dairy Today “(There are) fear profiteering tactics companies like Horizon Organics and Organic Valley have employed in their marketing strategies (… labels that wrongly suggest that organic milk contains no hormones, or that conventional milk contains antibiotics and pesticides - messages that are developed not by scientists, but by PR and marketing hucksters)”.Alex Avery, Director, The Center for Global Food Issues

28. Marketing – Dairy Today “In my opinion, authentic consumer demand is not driving things here. Instead, I am suspicious that the choice may be part of a deliberate marketing strategy. It may be more plausible that Dean Foods decided that it could increase or defend its market share and/or command a markup in price with “rbST free” milk that it couldn’t with “generic milk.” John Fetrow VMD, MBA, Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota

29. Does Technology Give Consumers Want They Want? • Economical food • Safe food • Abundant food • Sustainable agriculture

30. Protecting Your Right to Choose – A Call to Action

31. Premise • Producers, along with their advisors, are in the best position to select which technologies are appropriate for their operation

32. What Technologies are at Risk? • Synchronization programs • Growth promotants • Antibiotics • Artificial insemination • Genetic advancements • Feedstuffs

33. Safety - Consumer Culture

34. Value of POSILAC • More Milk • Save a cow • Repro

35. Call to Action - Producers • Speak up! Tell your Co-op directors, field men, and executives you want them to protect your right to use licensed approved technologies. • Speak up! Speak the truth about production agriculture when you get a chance, we have a great story to tell.

36. Call to Action - Producers Failure to do so will have severe negative consequences on: • Your livelihood and your industry • Your ability to compete • The products, or tools available to you to manage your dairy • Future investment and development in agricultural production and veterinary technologies • The environment

37. Summary Allowing producers the freedom to use licensed, approved technologies ensures the consumer will have a safe, healthy, sustainable and economical food supply for years to come!

38. Update And then he (Rob Horsch)got one of those life-changing phone calls…It was the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, asking him to join them as senior program officer. His mission: improving crop yields via the best and most appropriate science and technology, including biotechnology, for problems in regions including sub-Saharan Africa. (Rob starts with them in Nov, 2006)

39. Thank You