The poor performance of genetically engineered crops: imposing new risks on comsumer and environment while failing to improve the farmers' bottom line.

• Author: Druker, Steven M.
• Position: Biodevastation

Although proponents of agricultural biotechnology repeatedly claim that genetically engineered (GE) crops are dramatically increasing yields, enlarging farmers' profits, and reducing environmental hazards--while creating no higher risks to the health of the consumer--the facts tell a very different story. In reality, yields are often reduced, farmers are not enjoying higher profits, environmental hazards are intensifying, and numerous scientists, including the FDA's own experts, have warned about increased risks to the safety of the food supply.

GE crops are not performing as promised

As reported by the Des Moines Register, studies of Iowa farmers conducted for 1998 and 2000 by Iowa State University economist Dr.Michael Duffy showed: "Farmers who plant genetically modified corn and soybeans fare no better financially than those who grow traditional crops...seed companies and chemical companies have reaped the primary benefits of biotechnology so far."[1]

Dr. Duffy also found that in both years, yields for the GE soybean (Monsanto's Roundup Ready variety) were lower than for the non-GE beans.[2] This bean is the most widely planted GE crop in the world, and Duffy discovered that, despite the fact it actually reduces yields, over half the farmers he studied who had bought it did so because they believed it would increase their yields.[3]

The reduced yields of GE soybeans have been confirmed by several other studies. For example, researchers at the University of Nebraska conducted controlled studies comparing the Roundup Ready soybean with non-engineered soybeans and found consistent yield decreases with the GE beans of between 5 and 10%. They determined that 5% of the decrease was a result of the genetic manipulation. This research was published in the peer-reviewed Agronomy Journal.[4]

As for GE corn, research conducted on a national scale indicates an over-all reduction of profits. A study by Dr. Charles Benbrook, former Executive Director of the National Academy of Science Board of Agriculture, found that from 1996 through 2001 farmers who planted genetically engineered Bt corn have on the whole lost about $92 million, or an average of about $1.31 per acre.[5]

Bt corn, which is engineered to produce pesticide in its cells, is the most widely planted type of GE corn.

Even if GE crops were actually delivering their advertised benefits, they still would not be needed to alleviate hunger in the Third World. For example, in March 2003 the Food...