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Missouri Agtech Working To “Feed The World”

  • January 25, 2018

By 2050, the global population will reach 10 billion people, requiring a 60 percent increase in worldwide agricultural productivity. At the same time, available farmland will continue to shrink. To meet these challenges, we must step up agricultural research and development efforts to improve the quality of our food and to use technology and data management to help farmers operate more efficiently.

That is the argument being made by Dan Mehan, president and CEO of the Missouri Chamber, in a recent article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Mehan goes on to highlight St. Louis, Missouri-based global agtech giant Monsanto’s upcoming merger with Bayer as a key factor in finding a way to feed the growing global population.

“Homegrown agribusiness giant Monsanto will play a key part in meeting future needs,” said Mehan. “For more than 115 years, Monsanto has driven agribusiness innovation and crop science from its headquarters in St. Louis. It is the anchor in the Missouri community of agribusiness research organizations and companies that have grown up around it. Monsanto has put Missouri at the center of the single greatest challenge facing our generation: how to feed the world.”

In 2016, Bayer AG and Monsanto Co. announced a $66 billion definitive merger agreement. The combined businesses committed to retaining a strong presence in Missouri, which will be the home of their new Global Seeds & Traits and North American commercial headquarters. Additionally, the companies announced plans to spend $16 billion on research and development over the next six years, while also pledging to maintain its more than 9,000 jobs in the U.S., and to create more than 3,000 new high paying positions as an “investment in the U.S. Heartland.”

“This merger promises the kind of positive change that farmers and agribusiness companies in Missouri have always supported and frequently led,” said Mehan. “It will contribute to the free-market, competitive environment that has put Missouri among America’s elite agricultural states throughout our history. Together, the combined power of Bayer and Monsanto will give farmers the innovations they need to feed a hungry world. And we are proud these innovators will call Missouri home.”

For more information on agtech in Missouri, check out our industry webpage, or contact Steve Johnson, CEO of Missouri Partnership, at 314.725.2688 or via our contact form, with any questions you might have, and learn how Missouri Partnership can help with your business expansion needs.

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