by Maggie Severns
October 9, 2013
The agriculture giant
has a variety'solutions' for
mitigating and adapting to
Global warming could mean big
business for controversial
agriculture giant Monsanto,
by Maggie Severns
October 9, 2013
The agriculture giant
has a variety'solutions' for
mitigating and adapting to
Global warming could mean big
business for controversial
agriculture giant Monsanto, which
announced last week it was purchasing the climate change-oriented
startup Climate Corporation for $930 million.
Agriculture, which uses roughly 40
percent of the world's land, will be deeply affected by climate
change in the coming years.
In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change 'predicted',
that warming will lead to pest
that climate-related severe
weather will impact food security
that rising temperatures will
hurt production for farms in equatorial areas
(In areas further from the equator,
temperature rise is actually estimated to increase production
in the short term, then harm production if temperatures continue to
rise over 3 degrees Celsius in the long term.)
Meanwhile, increases in the global
population will make it crucial for farmers to be efficient with
their land, says UC Davis professor Tu Jarvis.
"The increase in food production,
essentially, in the future needs to be in yields
- output per acre," Jarvis says, even while weather
patterns make farming less predictable or more difficult in some
Monsanto, meanwhile, has been gearing up
to sell its wares to farmers adapting to climate change.
Here are five climate change-related
products the company either sells already, or plans to:
Data to help farmers grow crops in a
Climate Corporation, which
Monsanto is acquiring, sells
detailed weather and soil
information to farmers with the
stated mission of
"all the world's people
and businesses manage and adapt to climate change."
This data is meant to
help farmers better plan, track, and harvest their
crops, ultimately making farms more productive.
According to its press
release, Monsanto thinks the ag data business
will be a $20-billion market, and that farmers using
these tools could increase their yield BY 30 to 50
bushels (that's between 1,700 and 2,800 shelled
In a video interview about
the acquisition, Monsanto vice president of global
strategy Kerry Preete told
"We think weather
patterns are becoming more erratic, it places a huge
challenge on farmers with their production. We think
a lot of the risk can be mitigated out of weather
impact through information," Preete said.
"If you know what's
going on every day in the field, based on climate
changes, soil variations that exist, we can really
help farmers mitigate some of the challenges that
impact their yield."
Insurance for when it's too hot, cold, dry,
wet, or otherwise extreme outside
currently sells both
federally subsidized crop insurance and supplemental plans
that pay out additional benefits when crops go awry.
While federal insurance repays
farmers up to the break-even point for a failed crop,
Climate Corporation insures the lost profits as well.
Monsanto says it will maintain this insurance business.
Though the broader insurance
industry is concerned about losses due to major natural
disasters occurring more often as the result of climate
change, insuring crops is less risky because payouts for
a damaged crop season a generally smaller than those for
dense, damaged urban areas, according to Gerald
Nelson, a professor emeritus at the University of
Monsanto lists the
effects of climate change-related precipitation changes
and droughts as a potential "opportunity" in its
most recent filing with
the Carbon Disclosure Project, exp