TORONTO — Farmers take heed: the financial opportunities in farming are growing in proportion to the problem of global food security, according to Jay Bradshaw, president of Syngenta Canada.

Syngenta operates in 90 countries offering crop protection and seed products.

In a recent speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto, Bradshaw said that Canadian farmers are well-positioned to benefit from an impending worldwide food shortage.

"Let me begin by making it clear the old-fashioned image of the farmer in overalls and a straw hat is long gone," said Bradshaw, noting that today’s farms are businesses fuelled by profit like any other.

He went on to describe new innovations in agriculture, including bio-manufacturing, increasing prominence of value-added crops such as canola, and biofuels.

"Despite the doom and gloom news stories that sometimes surround agriculture, from a financial point of view, the agriculture industry is an extremely vibrant and viable one for Canada," he said, especially because of our exports.

As one of the world’s largest suppliers of pulses, the edible seeds of legumes including dry peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas, Canadian farmers will have enormous influence over world food supplies, said Bradshaw.

He mentioned a recent United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) that stated global food output must increase by 70 per cent by 2050 to accommodate the world’s population, and called on Canadians to embrace science-based agricultural innovations.

"It is imperative that our country maintain a strong federal, science-based regulatory environment that encourages investments in agricultural technology. This is an incredible moment in the history of food production. We have never had so much technology and knowledge to work with, and we have never had so much on the line. We can either put our heads in the sand and hope that other people will fix the challenges we’re facing, or we can take this opportunity to feed the hungry people of our planet," he said.