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Farm Progress Show in Decatur has a global reach
By Tony Reid
tony.reid@lee.net
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DECATUR — If it wasn’t for the corn, beans and bib overalls, it would be easy to mistake the Monsanto tent complex for some kind of United Nations field meeting.

Wander into the seed company’s site at the Farm Progress Show and American English, in all its regional variations, becomes just one ingredient in an exotic polyglot cocktail overheard in snatches of Spanish, Portugese, Italian, Swedish, Romanian and Czech, to name just a few.

Entertaining dozens of visitors from more than 20 countries, St. Louis-based Monsanto is proof of the global reach of American agri-business companies who use the bustling Farm Progress Show as their international trade window.

Visits to the event are often coordinated by Monsanto’s overseas dealers who want to give their customers a glimpse of farming’s future. Awaiting them is a golden acre stuffed with genetically engineered corn and soybean products being developed for the near future and offering everything from better yields to superior drought and insect resistance.

“I think it makes farmers feel good to know that their dollars, a large percentage of them, go back into future technology,” said Chris Peterson, U.S. corn trade marketing manager for Monsanto and one of the team on hand to welcome the international farmers.

“That technology, hopefully, will open up more markets to them and offer them more productivity while reducing risk. They have a chance here to see everything that we’re working on.”

Dave Rhylander, Monsanto’s director of traits, is in charge of marketing the hot new features the company is breeding into corn, soybeans and cotton. He said the international marketplace is a two-way street, enabling Monsanto to shop globally for the best characteristics from foreign and home-grown crops and combine them into superior products.

He shows off a tall, thriving corn plant with heavy ears that stands proud on their test plot, and then lists its genetic ancestry: “It’s 25 percent from Brazil, 25 percent from Argentina and 50 percent from the United States,” he said. “It shows the power of global breeding.”

Visiting farmers like Miguel Carballal Machado from Uruguay were suitably impressed and also loved the whole Farm Progress Show, with its tightly packed mix of the latest in farm technology and machinery.

“And I want to see all the new machines and all the new technology,” said Machado, 65, speaking through a translator. “We use American machinery and American seed.”

John Deere, which has pitched its tents at the opposite end of the show’s First Progress Street from Monsanto, also welcomed a steady stream of admiring foreign eyes. Barry Nelson, public relations manager for the Moline-based company, says John Deere has expanded into western European markets, China, South Korea and South America. He sees plenty of potential for more growth as global standards of living rise.

“People are improving their diets, eating higher quality food,” said Nelson. “And they’re going to need equipment to till, plant and harvest their improved crops, and we want to be there to supply them.”

As it turned out, the foreign visitors couldn’t have picked a better time to go shopping. John Deere has just unveiled a huge line of new products ranging from tractors and combines to self-propelled sprayers and cotton pickers. “In my 27 years with the company, it is the largest new product roll-out I can remember,” said Nelson. “And this is its first public showing.”

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