Davis, Calif. (August 12, 2010) – AgraQuest Senior VP of Marketing, Ashish Malik presented “Crop Protection Practices for Sustainable Agriculture” at the Sustainable Agriculture Partnerships 2010 conference in San Francisco. In attendance were thought leaders on sustainable food and agriculture from all levels of the food value chain including farmers, agrochemical companies, leading food companies, certification and services companies. The event was designed to deliver strategies for manufacturers, retailers and farmers to maximize profitability and remain sustainably competitive to understand how consumers are interpreting sustainability.
Malik highlighted the need for new approaches to meet the divergent demands on the food chain. ”Increasing population, the impacts of changing regulations and scarcity of natural resources means that the food value chain faces the most fundamental, yet highly complex challenge of all – to ensure food is produced and sourced in a sustainable way,” said Malik.
In his comments, Malik introduced the participants to biopesticides and proposed a new paradigm for agricultural pest control that “balances the use of innovative and effective biopesticides with the use of the best conventional pesticides to maximize pest control and yield, while minimizing chemical residues and ensuring growers can comply with global MRLs (maximum residue limits) on food. At AgraQuest, we refer to this approach as “low chem” agriculture.”
He stressed the need for the entire food value chain to jointly strategize about how consumers can be educated about these solutions, which allow value to be created and shared along the entire food production chain while delivering to consumers the sustainably-produced foods they want.
To learn more about AgraQuest’s suggestions for sustainable food production, visit http://sustainability.agraquest.com.
About AgraQuest, Inc.
AgraQuest is a biotechnology company focused on discovering, manufacturing and making highly effective pest management products for agricultural, institutional and home markets. The company holds a large portfolio of its own proprietary products, as well as actively in-licenses technology that fits into it low chem portfolio. As a leader in green agriculture and the emerging low chem sector, AgraQuest works to provide growers with solutions that offer best in class control while reducing the chemical load on the environment and creating sustainable agriculture opportunities. The Agrochemical division of AgraQuest offers a global portfolio of products – recognized as safer to beneficials, workers and the environment – that includes SERENADE®, SERENADE® Garden, SERENADE SOIL™, RHAPSODY®, SONATA®, and BALLAD® fungicides, and REQUIEM® insecticide. AgraQuest’s BioInnovations division provides the company an avenue to take biological and low-chemical technology created for the agriculture industry and discover innovative uses for it in related markets. AgraQuest has received several environmental awards including the Presidential Green Chemistry Award from the U. S. EPA for the discovery and commercialization of SERENADE. It also received the prestigious Global Frost & Sullivan Growth Leadership Award in 2009 for the biopesticides market. For more information visit www.agraquest.com