Julie Steenhuysen
Reuters
Corn that is genetically modified to resist pests benefits neighboring crops as well, U.S. researchers said Thursday.
They said Midwestern states that planted corn genetically modified to make a toxin that fights off European corn borer moths has dramatically cut the $1 billion in annual losses from the pest, even preserving crops that have not been altered.
"This study is the first to estimate the value of area-wide pest suppression from transgenic crops and the subsequent benefit to growers of non-transgenic crops," said Paul Mitchell, a University of Wisconsin-Madison agricultural economist who worked on the study published in the journal Science.
While supporters see genetically modified crops, or GMOs (genetically modified organisms), as a way to meet increasing global food demands, GM foods can be deeply controversial.
Some detractors call them "Frankenfoods," and many governments, including Japan, Kenya and the European Union, ban them entirely. The United States allows GMOs.
Commercial GM planting in Europe last year covered less than 100,000 hectares (247,100 acres), mostly in Spain, compared with 134 million hectares (331 million acres) globally.
Earlier cost-benefit studies have looked only at the effect on the genetically modified corn itself, but the study, led by William Hutchison of the University of Minnesota, shows the wider impact caused by crops modified to make their own insecticide -- the toxin made by soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt.
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