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Showcase concludes with experts on Brazil and gene sequencing


St. Louis, Missouri, USA
May 26, 2011

Brazil is amply ready to meet the predicted global shortfall in food commodities as it embraces agricultural technology, the head of Brazil’s first credit rating agency said at the Ag Innovation Showcase (www.agshowcase.com), a worldwide gathering of agricultural science and business leaders.

Brazil will easily be able to supply the increase in world demand for beef, said Paulo Rabello de Castro, chairman and principal partner of SR Rating, Brazil’s first credit rating agency, as well as managing partner of RC Consultores. Rabello de Castro gave the concluding keynote address at the two-day Ag Innovation Showcase at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (www.danforthcenter.org).

As rising prices and market limitations elsewhere challenge meat supplies worldwide, “Brazil alone would be able to make up for this (demand). It is the country most ready to help with the world need,” Rabello de Castro said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture ranks Brazil as one of the world’s largest producers of sugarcane, soybeans, corn, ethanol, coffee, orange juice and beef. Rabello de Castro said technology has played a major role in the growth of the nation’s agricultural industry, especially as more head of cattle occupy fewer hectares of land.

He encouraged the audience of agricultural scientists and entrepreneurs to bring their technology to Brazil to help the country overcome production hurdles. For example, he noted that the sheer size of the nation makes transport to market costly. Other issues include high input prices such as gasoline, extremely high and punitive taxes, sustainability issues and, he predicted, the eventual fall of commodity prices.

“All of these challenges call for technological answers from ag tech specialists,” Rabello de Castro said. “This is a big market and big opportunity.”

Before Rabello de Castro’s speech, Greg Lucier, chairman and CEO of Carlsbad, California-based Life Technologies, delivered Tuesday’s keynote breakfast presentation. He addressed how technologies the company has introduced for sequencing the human genome can be used to study and advance agricultural biology as well.

“The cost of sequencing is now ready to be used more routinely in your industry,” Lucier told the audience. “Biotechnology is the most promising solution to solve problems, ranging from food shortage to conservation of environmental resources and has the potential of becoming a source of everyday needs beyond food in the next few years.”

The newest technology also can potentially help develop biofuels and give optimal yields in difficult conditions.

“As we continue to explore and drive discovery at an unprecedented pace, we’ll continue to show how we can utilize genomics to solve the humanitarian problems that face the world, and can do it smarter, faster, and with more precision,” Lucier said.

About the Ag Innovation Showcase
Established in 2009, the Ag Innovation Showcase has quickly become the leading annual global event for agriculture’s industry leaders, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and investors. It promotes emerging technologies in ag-bio, food and nutrition, biofuels, sustainable materials, clean-tech, information technology and animal health. Held at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, MO, the largest independent plant science research institute in the world, the Ag Innovation Showcase is a joint effort of BRDG (“bridge”) Park at the Danforth Plant Science Center (a research campus for plant and life sciences enterprises) and the Larta Institute, as well as a number of sponsors. More information is available at
www.agshowcase.com

Bio for Paulo Rabello de Castro, PhD, Keynote Speaker
Paulo Rabello de Castro, PhD (U. of Chicago, 1975) is Chairman of the Board and Principal Partner of SR Rating the first credit rating agency to operate in Brazil. Rabello de Castro is also the managing partner of RC Consultores, an economic consulting and research firm based in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and also president of Instituto Atlântico, a public affairs and development policy research center. The author of several books on profit and risk, capitalism and economic development, as well as land reform, he has also written extensively on Brazil`s agribusiness sector and about macroeconomic policies for the country`s sustainable recovery from high inflation and over-indebtedness. Rabello de Castro received his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago and his undergraduate degrees in Law and in Economics from the Federal University in Rio de Janeiro. He has also been a Professor of Economics at the Graduate School of Economis of Getulio Vargas Foundation, the most prestigious non-governmental research center in the Social Sciences in Brazil.

Bio for Gregory T. Lucier, Keynote Speaker
Gregory T. Lucier, Chairman and CEO of Life Technologies Corp, heads a company whose 50,000 products enable scientific research throughout the world. As the leading provider of genetic analysis instruments, Life Technologies powers genomic research for better understanding of the genetics of plants and animals, and through synthetic biology, offers a vision for rational design of crops and plants to take agricultural engineering to bring crop yields and outputs to a whole new level. Life Technologies also demonstrates the global growth potential of science-based businesses, having grown dramatically since its beginnings just over 20 years ago and especially rapidly in the past decade. Lucier received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and his B.S. in Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.



More news from:
    . BRDG Park - Bio-Research & Development Growth Park
    . Donald Danforth Plant Science Center


Website: http://brdg-park.com

Published: May 26, 2011

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