Q&A with Reza Rasoulpour, Corteva regulatory & stewardship leader

Other than picking strawberries with his family, Reza Rasoulpour had never stepped on a farm before joining Corteva Agriscience 16 years ago. 

After earning his doctorate in toxicology from Brown University, Rasoulpour joined Corteva as a developmental and reproductive toxicologist. Toxicology is about understanding the things we’re exposed to, such as the air we breathe and the coffee we drink, and what risks they may pose, he explains.

Toxicologists at Corteva are responsible for conducting human health risk assessments for every crop protection molecule the company intends to register. To provide better tools for farmers, the studies determine how a product will behave in a farmer’s field, such as the potential impact on surface and ground-water and on native plant and animal species, and how quickly it will degrade in the soil. According to Rasoulpour, more than 150 studies are conducted on each product before it enters the market to ensure it is safe for everyone, including the farmer applying the pesticide and the children who may be running around the farm.

Rasoulpour serves as vice president for the company’s regulatory and stewardship organization, which is under the umbrella of research and development. In this role, he oversees regulatory sciences and product stewardship across Corteva’s global organization.

SF: What is the biggest issue facing farmers today and how can Corteva be a part of that solution?

RR: One of the biggest challenges facing them today is purely from a climate and environmental change standpoint. So as we look at farming for the next 10, 15 years, there are dramatic changes from a pest pressure standpoint, and from their overall climate changing standpoint. Farmers need new technologies to deal with those challenges.

SF: Describe the farming systems approach and how it fits into your work.

RR: The system approach considers the entire farming operation, including the upstream or down-stream value chain.

On-farm decisions are not made in isolation, and the entire operation can be impacted by any one decision. There is no longer going to be a single silver bullet for providing that integrated solution from a farming system standpoint. As we think about the future, it’s about how we create as many tools in the farmer’s toolbox as possible. So, we think about tools from a breeding standpoint, seed treatment, biologicals, natural products, synthetic chemistries, genome editing — putting all of this together in order to help farmers optimize for their acres and what their crops are, wherever they live around the world.

SF: What excites you the most in your research and development pipeline?

RR: We have some sets of next-generation insecticides that are absolutely amazing. Insecticides have a lot of regulatory challenges around the world, and we have things in our pipeline that will be delivered later this decade and into the next that have an environmental profile — which means it’s safe for pollinators and different types of insects — and lower use rates. Many of the products we are working on today can be applied at 50 to 100 grams per acre, which is a fraction of what previous products might require. Rinskor active, one of our new crop protection products, won an EPA Green Chemistry Challenge Award and has application rates around 10 grams per acre, which is equivalent to several packets of sugar spread over an entire football field. It’s really great from a human health perspective.

Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have dreamed we would’ve been able to come up with these types of molecules. Now, thanks to advancements in cell- and computer-based science, we can design and rapidly test the efficacy and safety of a molecule at the same time. This allows us to design future products with attributes that will deliver productivity and sustainability benefits. That really excites me because as we think about pest pressure challenges, existing tools on the market may no longer be on the market. Hopefully we can replace some of those with some of these new technologies.