Recognizing the impact of women in agriculture

Tim Glenn, Executive Vice President, Seed Business Unit

?Our company has built its reputation on the strength of our innovative solutions and serving customers with knowledge and advice they can trust. Every day, our teams all over the world focus on developing and delivering the seed and crop protection products that customers need to provide the food, fuel and fiber to meet the needs of society while helping customers meet their own business goals.

?To help accomplish this, our breeders have spent nearly a century building a collection of unique germplasm with industry-leading performance that allow crops to produce more with fewer resources, while resisting disease, pests and extreme weather that threaten their ability to grow. Biotech traits and crop protection products protect the potential of these genetics, and when combined with agronomic support, our customers have been able to achieve record corn yields of more than 623 bushels per acre. This is well beyond what we thought possible just a decade ago, and I’m excited to see we will be able to achieve as our new products and technologies advance to the market!

?At the core of these advancements is a deep understanding of breeding and biology – and the underlying genetic code that helps determine what can be possible with seed genetics.

?That’s why this month, we celebrate the role of women in agriculture during Women’s History Month, I’m highlighting the namesake of one of our research buildings at our Global Seed Business Center in Johnston, Iowa – Rosalind Franklin. A chemist and X-ray crystallographer, Franklin used X-ray imaging to reveal the double helix structure of DNA in 1952. Her work – while largely unrecognized in her lifetime – laid the foundation for the development of new technologies that we are using to help farmers sustainably increase yields, like molecular marker technology, biotechnology and even gene editing.

?As we work to address the ever-increasing need to increase productivity to meet demands for food, fuel and fiber, it is more important than ever that we draw on the full capabilities of everyone to discover and develop new solutions.

This women’s history month, I hope you will join me in recognizing the contributions women who make up more than 40% of the global agricultural workforce – including scientists like Franklin, colleagues, family members, friends, farmers, or others in the industry.

?As I’ve shared over the years, Women’s History Month is more than just dates on the calendar; it’s are a chance for us to track our progress with inclusion and identify where we must do better. I encourage you to get involved and make good faith efforts to understand how you can be part of helping women in your life break barriers and elevating others.