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The Best Science Writing Online 2012
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
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[Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.]
Humans have been genetically modifying crops for millenia the old-fashioned way—selective breeding. But new techniques that insert foreign genetic material, say bacterial genes to produce insecticide in a corn plant, have raised health and environmental concerns. And that has prompted European countries, most recently Germany, to ban genetically modified, or GM, crops.
Proponents argue that GM crops can help feed the world. And given ever increasing demands for food, animal feed, fiber and now even biofuels, the world needs all the help it can get.
Unfortunately, it looks like GM corn and soybeans won't help, after all.
A study from the Union of Concerned Scientists shows that genetically engineered crops do not produce larger harvests. Crop yield increases in recent years have almost entirely been due to improved farming or traditional plant breeding, despite more than 3,000 field trials of GM crops.
Of course, farmers have typically planted, say, GM corn, because it can tolerate high doses of weed-killer. And the Biotechnology Industry Organization argues that GM crops can boost yields in developing countries where there are limited resources for pesticides.
But it appears that, to date, traditional plant breeding boosts crop yields better than genetic modification. Those old farmers were on to something.
—David Biello
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9 Comments
Add CommentIf it was really the case that genetically modifying crops failed to produce better yields, it makes you wonder why people bother with selective breeding.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am surprised the Scientific America would buy into this spin. The traits conferred by GM are not intended to increase yields directly, they are intended to make the crop more resistant to insects (Bt) and to reduce competition from weeds (Roundup Ready). Other traits in the pipe include improved nutrition (Golden Rice) and drought resistance. Traditional breeding has been used for millenia to select for many traits, including increased yield. What The Union of Concerned Scientists is saying is that GM does not increase yields if there are no insect pests, or no weed competition, or no drought. This is what is known as a SPECIOUS argument. In the real world where there are insect pests the GM variety will have higher yields than varieties that do not have protection from insects, unless you spray every week with pesticides and even then there is much more insect damage than in the GM crop. Just ask the cotton farmers in India or the corn growers in the Midwest.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisShame on you for spreading this disinformation.
Just ask the cotton farmers in India? Just watch "The World According to Monsanto" or "Food, Inc." The only people that support GMO agriculture are those who live no where near the ag lands these crops are planted and work in the industry.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy did I just know gefore I even read this article that GM was going to be proposed as the answer to Africa's food problems? They just keep hustling.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisoops I seem to be on a different article
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTMP! (Too many people!) Birth control, family planning, less religion will do much more than any genetically modified crop. One child per couple, the Chinese innovation could save the world: Less famines and no global warming soon.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiszzz
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo or little increase in corn yields? With almost 85% of corn in the US now GM, how is this then explained?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture/?country=us&commodity=corn&graph=production
Only 2012 is noticeably lower, but ony due to the extreme drought in corn belt areas.
And before you credit the US corn production increases in the past 10 years to more acreage:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://mjperry.blogspot.com/2011/11/corn-yields-have-increased-six-times.html
The above chart shows quite an increase in yields per acre over the last 10 years or so.