Ambassador Schieffer Discusses Agricultural Biotech with ISAAA Chairman Clive James
February 1, 2007
Ambassador Schieffer met today with Dr. Clive James, the Chairman of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA).
The Ambassador received a copy of a recent ISAAA report showing that in 2006 over 100 million hectares of biotech crops were grown in 22 countries around the world. Also, in 2006, the number of farmers planting biotech crops surged past 10 million for the first time and more than 90 percent of these are small, resource-poor farmers from the developing world. A copy of the report may be found at www.isaaa.org.
Ambassador Schieffer commented, "Biotechnology is critical to increasing global food security and lessening the impact that agriculture has on the environment. I hope that Japan takes note of agricultural biotechnology's widespread and growing use around the world."