Looking Forward

'when you talk aboutinnovation, you talk about the future.' that's themessage brought homeat the basf media summit

I recently returned from the BASF Media Summit in Washington. Boy, do I feel dumb.

Washington proved the appropriate site for the media summit.

But that will happen after you spend a day listening to incredibly smart people wax about global agricultural trends, plant biotechnology and other vital plant science issues.

BASF's top brass held court in Washington on May 23 for the company's media summit, titled "Innovate '08: From Research to Reality." The Germany-based company's top leaders, including Peter Eckes, senior vice president of global research and development for the company's crop protection division; Markus Heldt, group vice president of the North America crop protection division; and Hans Kast, president and CEO of the BASF Plant Science Holding GmbH, were on hand among others on May 13 to discuss research and development in the agricultural sector, as well as the turf and ornamental areas.

Two things struck me while I listened to these people speak: First, they are extremely intelligent people (while I have wasted too much brain space on storing Major League Baseball batting averages and classic-rock song lyrics). Second, I feel pretty darn good about the people leading the chemical segment of the turf industry. They know what they're doing.

"When you talk about innovation, you talk about the future," said Stefan Marcinowski, a member of BASF's board of executive directors. "And everybody knows that the future is hard to predict. But there's one thing for sure — the future is the time zone where we will all spend the rest of our lives."

You can bet the BASF researchers — as well as researchers from most all of the chemical companies — are spending their time in the future now, inventing the pesticides of tomorrow.

Much of what the gentlemen spoke about pertained to agriculture. But as golf course superintendents and other turf managers know, a lot of the money spent on agricultural research by chemical companies to create products can trickle down to the specialty markets in due time.

Kast, who studied chemistry at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, and obtained his doctorate in 1978, called plant biotechnology "the innovation of tomorrow" in agriculture during his speech, "The Future Is in the Genes." Kast said BASF has decided to invest heavily in the segment.

"We have roughly $1.5 billion invested in research and development," he said, noting that BASF's R&D focuses on helping farmers increase yield, improve efficiency and protect crops against pests and diseases.

Again, while Kast's statements are agriculture related, superintendents might get an idea of how biotechnology could affect them in the future.

Paul Rea, director of BASF's specialty products department, provided a business overview of his department. Rea, who has a master's degree in business from the University of Sydney, Australia, said BASF and other chemical companies need to reinforce to the general public that their products are environmentally safe when used correctly.

"There's an opportunity to continue to reinforce the positive impact our products have in the marketplace," Rea said. "The industry, overall, has to push it and recognize the positive role these products play in enhancing those green space environments. ... It's a message we have to keep on plugging."

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