Agricultural media heard from BASF Crop Protection executives Wednesday at the 10th annual Science Behind event, held prior to the start of the 2016 Commodity Classic in New Orleans. The event was held appropriately for the topic at the Audubon Butterfly Garden and Insecterium which helped showcase findings from a BASF biodiversity research initiative called Living Acres.

“Living Acres is our next step in sustainability to help farmers increase our ecosystem by helping the monarch butterfly flourish in the United States,” said BASF Crop Protection Vice President Scott Kay. “We see a real need for sustainability and how we live within the world that we’re trying to feed.”

Listen to Kay talk about BASF’s sustainability commitment here: Interview with Scott Kay, BASF

“Monarch butterflies are really iconic insects across North America,” said Paul Rea, Senior Vice President BASF Crop Protection North America. “What we’ve found through our research is that milkweed is critical as a habitat for them to make their migration each year… And we’ve identified ways that farmers could develop small areas to establish milkweed to provide that environment for monarch butterflies.”

This research is part of the $2 million BASF spends on research and development every day, not just on new products, but also on ways to improve the sustainability of agriculture. “We have a very long commitment to agricultural research to help farmers farm successfully today and in the future,” said Rea. That does include a strong crop protection pipeline which is expected to achieve peak sales of €3 billion for products launched between 2015 and 2025. “In North America that translates into about 50 new products between now and 2020,” said Rea.

Rea talks about some of the new BASF crop protection products expected to hit the market just this year in this interview: Interview with Paul Rea, BASF

BASF Science Behind Living Acres Photo Album