One of the first speakers on the program here at the World Agricultural Forum was Robert Lane, Chairman and CEO of Deere & Company.

I’ve got his full comments here for you to listen to if you’d like. It’s about 22 minutes. In it he speaks to the topic of investing in agriculture to create prosperity, the theme of the event. He sees it as a timely topic and says right away that we need to have a sustainable level of prosperity. For that to happen he would like to see a more open business environment that’s conducive to investment. He says there needs to be true transparency. He says that new technology is absolutely necessary for success and that’s most likely to develop in open economies. He also says that green (as in environmental) is a societal issue which makes it a global business issue. He talks about how his company is working to be more involved in these things through acquisitions, new products and the involvement in organizations around the world working on these issues.

You can listen to Robert Lane’s comments here: world-ag-forum-07-lane.mp3