The European Commission and armies of environmentalists battled Monsanto nearly to a standstill over its GM seeds, but thanks to pressing global graindemand, Monsanto eventually won approval in all the world's biggest markets.
Greater meat consumption by the newly rich in China and other developing countries is also fuelling demand for grain, because livestock consume large quantities of feed.
At the same time, as Mr Viljoen's experience shows, grain is increasingly being stored and milled in rural areas, pushing up demand for skilled labour, and raising profits and wages.
Since 1 calorie of beef requires 8 times as much input of grain as a single calorie of bread, Petrela recognizes that rising protein consumption means a rising demand for grains which in turn means a rising demand for global farmland.