Learn at Lunch: Michael Schechtman '73

Biotechnology, Food Imperatives, and Global Agricultural Trade

With Michael Schechtman '73, Ph.D. Cornell University

Agriculture is both a necessity and a contributor to environmental degradation and climate change. Increasing world population and the lack of extra available land puts environmentally sensitive marginal lands at great risk, as do the diets in developed nations and the changing diets in developing ones. Much of the world’s arable lands are devoted to raising animals or to growing crops for animal feed. In order to produce adequate food supplies and protect remaining uncultivated land, farmers need new technologies to produce more food on less land, and do so in more environmentally benign ways, including incorporating new varieties derived from genetic engineering and gene editing as well as new management strategies. Concern around new technologies and commercial self-interest have often led to trade disputes disguised as scientific debates. As more countries incorporate biotechnologies for their own domestic use, technology fears may be lessened but trade competition will persist. Join us as Michael Schechtman '73, PhD, Cornell University and Former Biotechnology Coordinator at the United States Department of Agriculture, will discuss the issues intersecting biotechnology, food imperatives and the global agricultural trade.

Michael Schechtman '73

Ph.D. Cornell University

Michael Schechtman, prior to his retirement, was Biotechnology Coordinator for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), responsible for policy coordination on biotechnology matters within USDA and with other Federal Agencies, and serving as Executive Secretary of USDA’s Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture, whose mission was to advise the Secretary on biotechnology issues affecting the current and future work of USDA. He also had a variety of responsibilities in representing US biotechnology policy internationally, including in biotechnology treaty negotiations under the Biodiversity Convention and in trade negotiations with other nations, including China, and in outreach to numerous other nations around the world. Before joining USDA, he was on the faculty of the Department of Biology at Syracuse University. He is currently a member of a National Academy of Sciences advisory committee for its new Biotechnology Regulatory Fellowship Program.