To hear more about how Monsanto verifies the presence of traits, click here.
ANKENY, Iowa – The short answer: exactly what it says on the bag.
The long answer is that just off Interstate 35 in Ankeny is one of the world’s largest agricultural molecular breeding labs, which means it analyzes seed from breeders to see on a genetic level whether or not certain traits are present.
Monsanto research associate Macenzie Rubin, above, says being specific to that degree means there are few surprises in a bag of Monsanto seed.
“A farmer in southern Indiana have different needs than a farmer in Brazil,” says Rubin. “So we only need to get that genetic information from more and more seed so it’s really, really crucial that when a farmer buys that bag of seed that there’s a guarantee of what that plant will grow up to be. And I think there’s comfort in that, knowing when that farmer buys the seed that it’s been analyzed in a facility such as this. To guarantee those traits are present.”
According to Monsanto, checking for traits makes field trials more efficient, and can cut up to two years off of development time. Examining tens of millions of seeds each year is made possible by Monsanto’s proprietary chipping process, which shaves off a small portion, or chip, of seed tissue while leaving the embryo intact. That means the same seeds can be analyzed at the Ankeny lab and then planted later by a breeder. Within the scope of 21st-century farming, checking genetics is just one way the reality of agriculture challenges popular conception.
“I certainly didn’t think that this is what the agriculture would look like,” Rubin says, “but it does.” Everything is becoming more automated, essentially; more robotics, more engineering is involved with our automation and whatnot. There are such a variety of positions within agriculture from being in the field to designing the equipment in the field and then working with the seed from the field. And what that looks like is really a huge spectrum of things.”
