Science and Technology

Monsanto Researcher To Share World Food Prize

St. Louis Public Radio | By Véronique LaCapra,

Véronique LaCapra

Published June 19, 2013 at 5:33 PM CDT

(St. Louis Public Radio)

A Monsanto researcher is one of the winners of the 2013 World Food Prize.

Monsanto Chief Technology Officer Robert Fraley will share the international honor with Mary-Dell Chilton of Syngenta and Belgian plant scientist Marc Van Montagu.

This year's winners of the award known as "the Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture" are former rivals who independently led the development of techniques to insert genes into plants.

Their selection will probably be met with protests from environmentalists who have been vocal in their opposition to genetically-engineered crops.

The World Food Prize is intended to honor individuals who have improved the "quality, quantity or availability of food in the world” — something Fraley says biotech crops are uniquely suited to do.

“Over the next 30 years, the world needs to double food production,” Fraley said. “And you really have two choices. You either farm twice as much land and turn the rest of the forests and wetlands into farms, or you use technology appropriately and increase yields.”

Biotech crops are widely planted in the U.S., but many countries worldwide have banned their use due to health or environmental concerns.

The private, non-profit organization awarding the World Food Prize has been criticized for its close ties to agribusiness companies.

Follow Véronique LaCapra on Twitter: @KWMUScience

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Véronique LaCapra

Véronique LaCapra first caught the radio bug while writing commentaries for NPR affiliate WAMU in Washington, D.C. After producing her first audio pieces at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies in N.C., she was hooked! She has done ecological research in the Brazilian Pantanal; regulated pesticides for the Environmental Protection Agency in Arlington, Va.; been a freelance writer and volunteer in South Africa; and contributed radio features to the Voice of America in Washington, D.C. She earned a Ph.D. in ecosystem ecology from the University of California in Santa Barbara, and a B.A. in environmental policy and biology from Cornell. LaCapra grew up in Cambridge, Mass., and in her mother’s home town of Auxerre, France.

See stories by Véronique LaCapra

Véronique LaCapra

Science reporter Véronique LaCapra first caught the radio bug writing commentaries for NPR affiliate WAMU in Washington, D.C. After producing her first audio documentaries at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies in N.C., she was hooked! She has done ecological research in the Brazilian Pantanal; regulated pesticides for the Environmental Protection Agency in Arlington, Va.; been a freelance writer and volunteer in South Africa; and contributed radio features to the Voice of America in Washington, D.C. She earned a Ph.D. in ecosystem ecology from the University of California in Santa Barbara, and a B.A. in environmental policy and biology from Cornell. LaCapra grew up in Cambridge, Mass., and in her mother’s home town of Auxerre, France. LeCapra reported for St. Louis Public Radio from 2010 to 2016.