The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology released its latest issue paper titled Crop Protection Contributions toward Agricultural Productivity–A paper in the series on The Need for Agricultural Innovation to Sustainably Feed the World by 2050. The presenter at the three rollout events was Dr. Susan Ratcliffe, task force chair of the project and director of the North Central IPM Center at the University of Illinois.

Photo collage from the April 5 event: Presenter Susan T. Ratcliffe (upper left); CropLifeAmerica President and CEO Jay Vroom (next to Dr. Ratcliffe); CAST EVP Kent Schescke (center top)

The authors of the paper examine the current plant protection revolution that is driven by the biological realities of pesticide resistance, various market forces, and real or perceived side effects of pesticides, while stressing the need for new technologies and an integrated cropping systems approach.

CAST Issue Paper 58 is now available as a free download here. The one-page summary, Ag quickCAST, is available here.

A video of Wednesday’s presentation–cohosted by CropLifeAmerica–is available here.