Report highlights economic, environmental benefits of GM crops

A report released by PG Economics, a provider of advisory and consultancy services to agriculture and other natural resource-based industries, has found that over the past 20 years, crop biotechnology, including genetic modification (GM), has significantly reduced agriculture’s environmental impact and stimulated economic growth in the 26 countries where the technology is used. In addition, the researchers determined that the agricultural technology has contributed to preserving the earth’s natural resources, while allowing farmers to grow more, high quality crops. It has also helped alleviate poverty for 16.5 million, mostly smallholder farmers, in developing countries.

“Over the past 20 years, where farmers have been given access to, and the choice of growing biotech/GM crops, they have consistently adopted the technology, contributing to a more sustainable food supply and a better environment where they live,” said Graham Brookes, director of PG Economics, co-author of the report.

Highlights in the peer-reviewed report include:

• Crop biotechnology has reduced agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions by helping farmers adopt more sustainable practices such as reduced tillage, which decreases the burning of fossil fuels and retains more carbon in the soil.
• From 1996 to 2015, crop biotechnology reduced the spraying of crop protection products by 619 million kilograms, a global reduction of 8.1%. Farmers who grow biotech crops have reduced the environmental impact associated with their crop protection practices by 18.6%.
• Biotech crops allow farmers to grow more without needing to use additional land. For example, if crop biotechnology had not been available to farmers in 2015, maintaining global production levels that year would have required the planting of an additional 8.4 million hectares (ha) of soybeans, 7.4 million ha of corn, 3 million ha of cotton, and 0.7 million ha of canola.
• Insect resistant (IR) crop technology used in cotton and corn has consistently improved yields by reducing the damage caused by pests. From 1996 to 2015, across all users of this technology, yields have increased by an average of 13.1% for IR corn. Farmers who grow IR soybeans commercially in South America have seen an average 9.6% increase in yields since 2013.
• Biotech farmers in developing countries, many of whom are resource-poor and farm small plots of land, continue to see the highest yield gains from using the technology.

Over 20 years, crop biotechnology has been responsible for the additional production of 180.3 million tons of soybeans, 357.7 million tons of corn, and 10.6 million tons of canola.

Report (pdf)