CHICAGO, Ill. (Reuters) – Corn genetically modified to resist pests also benefits neighbouring crops, say U.S. researchers.
Midwestern states that planted corn genetically modified to make a toxin that fights off European corn borer moths has dramatically cut the $1 billion US 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 journalScience.
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Commercial GM planting in Europe last year covered less than 247,100 acres, mostly in Spain, compared with 331 million acres globally.
Earlier cost-benefit studies have looked only at the effect on the GM corn itself, but the study, led by William Hutchison of the University of Minnesota, shows the wider impact caused by Bt corn crops, which have been modified to make their own insecticide.
According to the team’s calculations, Bt corn planted in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska over the past 14 years saved up to $6.9 billion, and 62 percent of that savings, or about $4.3 billion, came from fields that were not genetically modified.
Potatoes and green beans also stand to benefit, the researchers said.
“We’ve assumed for some time that economic benefits were accruing, even among producers who opted not to plant Bt hybrids,” said Mike Gray of the University of Illinois, who worked on the study.
“However, once quantified, the magnitude of this benefit was even more impressive.”
Corn borer moths, historically one of corn’s key pests, cannot tell the difference between Bt and non-Bt corn, so females lay eggs in both. Once eggs hatch in Bt corn, the larvae feed and die within 24 to 48 hours.
Bt corn, made by companies like Syngenta and Monsanto, make up 63
percent of all U.S. corn acres, cutting corn borer populations in non-Bt fields by 28 to 73 percent in Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin, the researchers said.
