Kicking off a new Sustainable Product Expo this week, the CEOs from more than a dozen global companies gathered at Walmart headquarters in Arkansas Tuesday to pledge to increase sustainable food production.
Monsanto chairman and CEO Hugh Grant announced two commitments at the event to help address challenges in the areas of water and nutrient efficiency. First, the company will work to increase water-use efficiency in irrigation across its own global seed production operations by 25 percent by 2020. Grant also pledged that the company “will continue to innovate and advance smarter seeds and precision management tools that enable farmers to use nutrients more efficiently and curb greenhouse gas emissions on one million acres in the United States by 2020.”
Grant and other Monsanto officials held a telephone press conference following Tuesday’s event, together with Illinois farmer and former National Corn Growers Association president Leon Corzine, to talk about the commitments in more detail. Monsanto Sustainability Commitments