I finally got to tour the Monsanto exhibit last night. All I can say is “wow.” It’s got to be the coolest exhibit I’ve seen at this show. I know they’re my sponsor but you’d have to see it to believe it.

It’s kind of like an EPCOT exhibit at DisneyWorld. We started out in an air-conditioned room with our tour guide giving us the background. Then Monsanto’s Chief Technology Officer, Rob Fraley, (pictured) gave us a tour through plots of corn, soybeans, alfalfa and cotton that are all neatly labelled with informative signs. Yes, cotton growing here in Iowa. They have all of their current and some future products on display! It’s all certified by USDA too.

This is just an awesome display. They told us prior to the tour that by the end of the show they’ll have had more farmers tour and see their technology than go through their Chesterfield research facility near St. Louis in a year. That’s impressive.

I interviewed Rob Fraley after our tour and asked him to describe what they have on display. He also talks about what it’s like to be the CTO for a company like Monsanto. He describes where the company and industry is at in the biotechnology arena as similar to where we were at with computers in the 1960’s. In other words, we haven’t even scratched the surface yet on what’s possible.

You can listen to my interview with Rob Fraley here: Rob Fraley Interview (4 min. MP3)

I’ve decided that I’m going to return my little video camera I brought out here but I did use it last night while Rob was giving us a tourn. You can watch it here: Monsanto Exhibit Tour (2 min WMV)

Coverage of the Farm Progress Show is sponsored by Monsanto: