More access needed to biotech crop data.

• Position: Agriculture

Biologists maintain that they should have greater access to maps indicating the locations of biotech crops. Such availability on a county and township level would give researchers more ability to analyze the effects of biotech crops on wildlife, water quality, and insects, both the pest and beneficial variety.

"Since 1996, more than 1,000,000,000 acres have been planted with biotech crops in the U.S.," notes Michelle Marvier, associate professor of biology and environmental studies at Santa Clara (Calif.) University. "We don't really know what the pros and cons of this important new agricultural technology are."

People on both sides of the debate about genetically engineered crops have been making a lot of claims. "One side has been saying that biotech crops reduce insecticide use, reduce tillage, and therefore the erosion of topsoil. People on the other side say that biotech crops could hurt native species," Marvier explains.

At present, the Department of Agriculture collects statistics at the scale of individual farms, but the data only is available to researchers at the scale of entire states. Answering key questions about the environmental...