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The North American affiliate of BASF SE, the largest chemical producer in the world, on Monday opened its new Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Research Triangle Park, NC, the company announced.
BASF describes itself as a company that creates “chemistry for a sustainable future” by combining “economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility.” The company develops chemicals, materials, and ag solutions such as biological crop protection and solutions for soil management and pest control.
BASF is a member of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO). As Good Day BIO reported, BIO’s VP of Agriculture and Environment, Sarah Gallo, attended the opening ceremony.
“The world is putting more pressure on our farmers, and they’re not getting as much support as they need to meet the demands and the challenges they face on a daily basis,” said Paul Rea, BASF Agricultural Solutions North America’s Senior Vice President, at the opening ceremony. The new center “demonstrates that we’re at the forefront of providing farmers with some much-needed support. It also will help us to amplify their voices within and outside of our agricultural food system.”
‘Focused on sustainable agriculture’s impact’
The BASF Center for Sustainable Agriculture “creates a unique destination focused on sustainable agriculture’s impact on the environment, people, and planet” and features interactive exhibits highlighting BASF’s products and initiatives in the areas of sustainability and biodiversity, food, fuel and fiber, agricultural technology, and pest control, the company said.
BASF Center’s interactive exhibits highlight the need to tackle challenges like “food insecurity and pest-driven disease, skyrocketing energy prices, increasingly unhealthy air and whatever comes next for agriculture and the planet” with sustainable solutions that biotech is delivering, Good Day BIO says.
As BASF points out on its website, the company plans to use the technology of genome editing as the next step in biotechnology innovation “to gain knowledge and improve organisms with both agricultural and industrial applications.”
Although it has not yet marketed any products developed using new genome editing methods, the BASF teams “continue to optimize both conventional and biotechnology plant breeding methods, including the use of advanced tools for genome editing such as CRISPR-Cas9 or other genome editing technologies,” the company info says. “BASF is exploring new genome editing techniques in seed, biotechnology , and crop protection research.”
