Section One
PLENARY ADDRESSES
1    INDUSTRIAL TRANSITION TO
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Earl R. Beaver, Director
Monsanto Company
St. Louis, Missouri 63167
We have changed our environmental behavior just in time. We were almost goners, poisoning
our living space with our own waste, but "Thank Goodness" we recognized our mistakes before
it was too late. Although prodded by sometimes overly burdensome environmental regulations,
we nonetheless cleaned the nest and we're back in business.
We no longer discharge raw sewage into the rivers. Black soot no longer darkens cities on
otherwise clear, sunny days. We have regulated, clay lined pits into which we've agreed toxic
waste can be safely deposited, and we've found uses for mountains of household trash: cover
them with grass and make golf courses!
Plentiful oil supplies and well stocked reserves guarantee our modern society will have the
lifeblood it relies on to keep making progress. Oh, and if you're concerned about automobile
emissions, relax, we've taken the lead out!
Modern factories have pollution control devices that neutralize waste before discharge, and
any remaining organic chemicals are diluted or degraded by Mother Nature. Now if we could
just get those developing countries to adopt our enlightened standards, we wouldn't have any environmental problems.
By now, most of you realize I'm being facetious. At least I hope you do. But the fact is that
some people, actually, quite a few people in this country, would agree and be cheered by that account. While it is true we are not operating in the same grossly inefficient way we did during the
peak of the Industrial Revolution, we are still on a path that is leading us quickly to extinction.
We have turned things around somewhat. The air and water are cleaner than in the 1940s, but
our rate of raw material use has accelerated, and, although our operations are more efficient than
in the past, the rate of waste creation is more than the planet can absorb.
Thankfully, the pace of improvement is increasing. Three decades ago, remediating past events
was the focal point of attention, and adversity was the dominant characteristic of interactions
among groups. Command and control legislation resulted from the adversity and mistrust. In the
United States, environmental legislation proliferated, gaining momentum in the 1970s on an exponential curve when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established, and the
CERCLA Superfund laws, and the Clean Air and Clean Water laws were enacted. Businesses
struggled to comply.
Firms which competed in the marketplace in that era exhibited the characteristics of adversaries in their approach to the environment and environmental issues. Two companies with
nearly identical spills or emissions sought advantage over one another and used intellectual property protection or business secrecy as a reason to deny existence of many emissions.
Pollution prevention was viewed as repairing past sins. In the 1980s, treating ongoing emissions gained more attention with the passage of the Community-Right-to-Know laws. Companies, measuring releases of the 300-plus chemicals on the Toxic Release Inventory list for the
first time, were shamed into improving their performance. Monsanto was among the first in the
51st Purdue Industrial Waste Conference Proceedings. 1996, Ann Arbor Press, Inc., Chelsea. Michigan 48118.
Printed in U.S.A.