Genetically modified crops continue along their projected growth path halfway through the second decade of commercialization.
In its annual report detailing the global adoption of the seed technology, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications said 16.7 million farmers in 29 countries planted 395 million acres of GM crops in 2011.
That represents an eight percent increase in both farmers and acreage over 2010, although the number of countries remains the same.
ISAAA chair Clive James said at this pace the world will achieve the predictions he made at the end of the first decade of commercialization in 2006 when he forecast a doubling of the 10.3 million farmers, 252 million acres and 22 countries growing GM crops.
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“Biotech crops are the fastest adopted crop technology in the history of modern agriculture,” he said during a teleconference announcing the findings of the 2011 report.
But according to Greenpeace, GM crops account for a small fraction of the food grown around the world.
“Contrary to the claims in the report, GE crops remain a global failure with only about one percent of global farmers cultivating GE crops,” senior campaigner Lasse Bruun said in a news release.
Lucy Sharratt, co-ordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, said only seven GM crops have been commercialized and the market is still dominated by two traits — herbicide tolerance and insect resistance.
“This belies the 20-year-old promises from the biotechnology industry about what they would be able to produce,” she said. “They always say new crops are on the horizon.”
In fact, GM soybean, corn, cotton and canola accounted for 99 percent of biotech acres in 2011.
James said the technology was first put to use in a fibre crop (cotton), then moved into feed crops (corn and soybeans) and will be transitioning into food crops in the coming years.
He anticipates that Golden Rice, a crop designed to remedy vitamin A deficiency, will be approved for commercial production in the Philippines as early as 2013, paving the way for adoption of the technology by other countries in Asia.
James said that would be a major breakthrough for GM food crops. An estimated 250 million farmers grow rice.
“Rice is the most important food crop in the world that feeds half of humanity,” he said.
But it isn’t the only food crop nearing commercialization. A GM eggplant is being field tested in the Philippines and Bangladesh.
And there is the renewed interest in GM wheat research in the United States, Australia and China, where researchers are working on drought tolerance, fusarium resistance, anti-sprouting and improved quality. James anticipates the first GM wheat lines will be commercialized before 2020.
Sharratt scoffs at the notion of the technology moving into food crops.
“Obviously, corporations want to commercialize GM traits in the staple crops of rice and wheat but the public and the markets aren’t going to let that happen,” she said.
She noted that India placed a moratorium on the approval of GM eggplant in 2010. Greenpeace said China and Thailand have suspended commercialization of GM rice.
“(ISAAA is) ignoring the reality of global resistance,” said Sharratt.
Another setback happened in January when BASF announced it was halting development and commercialization of all GM crops targeted for cultivation in the European Union, including Fortuna, a table potato offering complete protection from late blight.
The company will continue to seek EU approval of the product since a package has already been submitted to regulatory authorities.
James said it is important for the EU to approve this product. Late blight is the disease that caused the Irish famine of 1845, which killed one million people. It causes up to $7.5 billion in crop damage annually to the world’s fourth most important food crop.
Restrictive government regulations are the biggest impediment to the continued growth of GM crops. James said that’s a tragedy because the world will consume twice as much food in the next 50 years as it has in the previous 10,000 years.
“Regrettably the vast majority of global society is completely unaware of the formidable challenge of feeding the world of tomorrow. Also, most do not realize the potential contribution of biotechnology.”
James, who worked with Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug for 30 years, said the real benefit is in the alleviation of poverty and hunger and the side benefits that accompany those objectives.
“(Borlaug) used to insist that you cannot build peace on empty stomachs. He was right,” he said.
James blames the EU for influencing policy makers in some developing countries where impoverished farmers could benefit from the technology.
But he is encouraged by the 11 percent growth rate in the adoption of GM crops in developing countries in 2011, which was twice as fast as the five percent expansion in industrial countries.
Developing countries accounted for half of global biotech acreage in 2011, led by Brazil, Argentina, India, China and South Africa. And 90 percent of the 16.7 million farmers growing GM crops are resource-poor producers in developing countries.
