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UK – GM ASSESSMENT TO-DATE
FIRST NINE YEARS OF GM ASSESSED
7 October 2005. Source: CropBiotech Update
Graham Brookes and Peter Barfoot of PG Economics Ltd., UK take stock of how biotech crops have made an impact in the first decade of their use. Their article, “GM Crops: The Global Economic and Environmental Impact - The First Nine Years 1996-2004,” appears in the online Agbioforum journal.
Both researchers found that the use of biotech crops in the last nine years has brought substantial net economic benefits at the farm level amounting to a cumulative total of $27 billion. They pointed out gains in important crop sectors such as cotton, which has benefited from an additional $6.5 billion in terms of farm income levels since 1996.
They also found that the use of biotech crops has reduced pesticide spraying by 172 million kg, as well as the environmental footprint associated with pesticide use by 14%. In the maize sector, pesticide use decreased by 24 million kg; while farmers reduced herbicide use by 5 million kg in the canola sector.
Researchers also found that the technology has significantly reduced the release of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, which is equivalent to removing five million cars from the roads.
Read the complete article at
http://www.agbioforum.missouri.edu/v8n23/v8n23a15-brookes.htm.
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