Roger Beachy Different Upbringing Than Most of His Scientific Colleagues

There are some camps who saw the appointment of BEACHY as a “win for Big Ag”, because of his research and background in biotechnology. After all, he pioneered plant transgenics and, in 1987, developed the first transgenic food crop, a tomato resistant to virus infection. One columnist even called BEACHY “the public face of Monsanto’s research efforts.”

They couldn’t be further from the truth.

BEACHY was raised in rural Ohio and Indiana in the Amish and Mennonite faiths (his father, who was raised Amish and left school in eighth grade, actually went back to school and then college after having his four children). And BEACHY received his bachelor’s degree at the liberal arts, Mennonite-based Goshen College in Indiana, and has served on the Mennonite Central Committee.
“It was a different kind of upbringing than what most of my scientific colleagues have had,” BEACHY said. Click here for the article by Susan Crowell Wednesday, February 24, 2010 in Farm and Dairy and listen to interviews with Roger Beachy