The Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture released Field to Market,
a first-of-its-kind report that quantifies the environmental,
socio-economic, and health impacts of U.S. agriculture over the last 20
years.

?The initial analysis by the Keystone Alliance shows that over the last 20
years, U.S. agriculture has become more efficient in utilizing resources and
increasing productivity, while decreasing its impact on the environment,?
said Howard L. Minigh, president and CEO of CropLife International. ?Field
to Market is an excellent model for illustrating the impact agricultural
advancements can have in achieving sustainable agriculture. Our industry
believes it can become a standard worldwide for measuring agriculture?s
impact.?

Field to Market quantifies the impact of corn, soy, cotton, and wheat
production on land use, water use, energy use, soil loss, and the climate
between 1987 and 2007. The plant science industry has made significant
contributions to agriculture during this time period, which have supported
the following progress towards sustainable agriculture:
a.. Preserving topsoil through conservation tillage is enabled by
herbicides and biotech crops, as well as direct seeding equipment.
Conservation tillage can help reduce soil erosion by an estimated 50-98% and
also improves soil quality and moisture retention.
b.. Global fuel savings associated with switching to conservation tillage
farming systems and less frequent passes in farm equipment over the field
made possible by biotech crops and the use of broad-spectrum herbicides have
prevented about 962 million kg of carbon dioxide emissions ? equivalent to
removing nearly half-a-million cars from the road. Cumulatively since 1996,
the permanent carbon dioxide savings are equal to removing 2.05 million cars
off the road for one year (ISAAA, 2006).
c.. Crop protection products have reduced losses due to weeds, insects and
plant diseases, making agriculture more productive and a much more efficient
user of land, water, and other resources.
d.. Since the introduction of biotech crops in 1997, there has been a
marked increase in the consistency of yields. The most detailed study to
date shows that plant biotechnology helped increase U.S. agricultural
production by 8.34 billion pounds on 123 million acres in 2005 (NCFAP 2006).
?The world has limited resources and the plant science industry is committed
to doing its part to improve agriculture?s use of water, fuel, and land. The
number one way to do this is to grow more crops per acre and to protect
harvests,? continued Minigh. "The plant science industry is here to help
with these goals by achieving more sustainable, productive, and efficient
crop production.?

?The work done by the Keystone Alliance shows that agriculture is moving in
the right direction in terms of reducing its environmental impact. We agree
that there is more work to be done to examine other indicators such as water
quality, quality of life, and biodiversity, as well as to complete these
assessments in other countries,? said Minigh. ?The effort to create
indicators will help agriculture work toward continued improvement for the
benefit of the environment.?

CropLife International is the global federation representing the plant
science industry. It supports a network of regional and national
associations in 91 countries, and is led by companies such as BASF, Bayer
CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, FMC, Monsanto, Sumitomo and Syngenta.
CropLife International promotes the benefits of crop protection and
biotechnology products, their importance to sustainable agriculture and food
production, and their responsible use through stewardship activities.
www.checkbiotech.org