June 19, 1996
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Mycogen Corporation (Nasdaq: MYCO) has appointed Michael J. Muston a corporate Vice President and General Manager of its Mycogen Seeds subsidiary. Muston replaces James W. Hopkins, who has left the company.
Muston has 18 years of agribusiness experience, most recently as General Manager, Western Agriculture, for DowElanco, a major crop protection and specialty pest management company.
Carl Eibl, Mycogen�s President and Chief Operating Officer, said the company looked outside the seed industry for an executive with broad agricultural experience and strong financial credentials to lead a long-term growth initiative driven by new, technology-based products.
New seed products with built-in insect-resistance and herbicide-tolerance that help growers reduce input costs and improve pest and weed control are bringing about a convergence of the seed and crop protection industries, Eibl said. Technology also is increasing the value of crops by improving the quality and quantity of outputs such as oil, protein and starch. Mike Muston�s background, operating track record and fresh perspective will complement the new Mycogen Seeds management team and organization we have put into place.
With the addition of the Keltgen and Lynks seed brands it acquired earlier this year, Mycogen Seeds would have ranked third in U.S. seed corn sales in 1995. This spring, it began marketing its first seed corn products genetically engineered with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) genes to produce a protein that protects corn plants from feeding damage by European corn borer, a major pest in corn production worldwide.
In December 1995, Mycogen entered into a collaboration with Pioneer Hi-Bred, the world�s largest seed company, to use Bt technology to develop corn plants with resistance to additional pests, as well as pest-resistant varieties of soybean, sunflower, sorghum, canola and wheat. Mycogen also is developing pest-resistant alfalfa and cotton, and is exploring opportunities to license its proprietary Bt technology to control pests in other crops.
Mycogen is a diversified agricultural biotechnology company that develops and markets technology-based products and provides crop protection services to control agricultural pests and improve food and fiber production. Mycogen Seeds develops and markets planting seeds for improved crop varieties with genetically enhanced insect- resistance and other value-added characteristics. Mycogen Crop Protection develops and markets environmentally compatible biopesticides and provides crop protection services to growers of high value crops in California and Arizona.
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