Michael Doane

Former Vice President, Sustainable Agriculture Policy, Monsanto Company

Company Expert Monsanto

Expert Bio

I had the privilege to grow up on a family farm in Western Kansas that is still actively managed by my parents and brothers. While I still enjoy getting back to our farm, I decided to focus my career on agricultural policy. I was honored to work on behalf of Kansas wheat growers and developed programs to promote the adoption of no-tillage practices before returning to Kansas State University to complete a graduate program in agricultural economics. I then joined Monsanto and was with the company for nearly 15 years, holding a variety of roles in sales, product development and industry relations. I co-lead Monsanto’s focus on sustainable agriculture and lead our engagement with stakeholders focused on environmental issues.

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Q: Monocultural agriculture is ecologically destructive and unsustainable. 1. Globally, its activities combine into a carbon footprint larger than the entire world's transport sector, its productivity depending on energy inputs 10 times higher than it output

Answered By Michael Doane - Oct 22, 2013

A: I wish there was an easy answer to your question, but I'm not sure there is. When I was kid growing up on my family's farm in western Kansas, we were restricted, as a matter of U.S. agricultural policy, to producing only wheat on a continuous basis. This created a number of management challenges. Specifically, we had some weed and disease issues that became a perpetual battle. I spent many long hours on a tractor, tilling the soil, in order to manage weeds.Today, as a matter of U.S. agricultural policy, my father and brothers can and do plant a much more diverse rotation of crops, largely in [...]

Environment