Once upon a time, all the world needed was love, sweet love – but life is a little more complicated these days.
The theme of the ninth annual Bayer CropScience Ag Issues forum was “What the World Needs” and topics included water security, communications, innovation, pollinators and sustainable farmers. At the end of the two-day event, Bayer CropScience president and CEO Jim Blome said the bottom line is that everyone has a role in feeding a growing world population.
Blome was particularly pleased to present the fourth Bayer CropScience Young Farmer Sustainability Award to Bryan Boll of Minnesota. “We thought we needed to elevate young farmers, the people who are doing things right and have a great story to tell,” said Blome. “These guys are running big businesses with an eye on the future and they’re not afraid of technology. We want to identify them, elevate them and then celebrate them.”
One of the most important segments of the forum focused on bees, which Bayer CropScience believes are critical to agriculture and the world. “Pollinator and bee health are really important to us,” said Blome, who explained that they take the fluctuations in pollinator populations so seriously they have dedicated significant resources to an overall Bee Care Program. That includes a new North American Bee Care Center to advance honey bee research, education and collaboration, which is scheduled to open next month.
“We all eat and one out of every three bites of food that we take comes from a bee,” said Blome. [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/bayer/bayer-aif14-blome.mp3″ text=”Interview with Bayer CropScience CEO Jim Blome”]
