The world continually needs more-efficient farming to avoid global famine, meaning the tools of agricultural biotechnology are more important to North Carolinians than ever before.
That's one of the key messages from a public television news show that aired this week In an interview on UNC-TV's nightly news program, North Carolina Now.
Jonathan Bryant, Ph.D., vice president of BASF Plant Science LP, cited the state's outstanding educational institutions, agricultural heritage, business-friendly environment and highly trained workforce among the key reasons his 11-year-old organization has grown and prospered in Research Triangle Park.
Bryant, a native of England, and Ken Tindall, Ph.D., the North Carolina Biotechnology Center's senior vice president for science and business development, outlined North Carolina's bright future for creating new agricultural jobs.
The show's host, producer Deborah Holt Noel, highlighted the sector on the news show because the BASF ag research company recently won the North Carolina Leadership Award in Industrial Biotechnology.
The Biotechnology Center presented the award during the World Congress for Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing in Washington, D.C.
Tindall noted that bioscience will play a major role as the state pursues a $30 billion expansion of its $70 billion agricultural economy during the coming decade. More than 530 life science companies already employ some 57,000 people, including many in agriculture-related firms like BASF, he said.
Tindall and Bryant noted that biotechnology offers the best hope for increasing crop yields and farmers' efficiency while reducing chemical use, soil erosion and energy consumption.