There is at least an 87% chance you are planting genetically enhanced soybeans, and at least a 35% chance you are planting genetically enhanced corn this year.

Those were the acreage shares for herbicide resistant soybeans and insect resistant corn in 2005, and chances are the share will not decline in 2006. Genetically enhanced seed is blowing out ten candles on its birthday cake this year, and most products would be envious to have done so well in such a short amount of time. If you are among the adopters of this technology, USDA’s inquiring mind wanted to know why, and reveals it all in a newly released report on biotech adoption. Its economists wanted to know about the pace of research, the rate of biotech adoption by farmers, and consumer trust in biotech products. You may be surprised at some of the findings.

USDA, EPA, and FDA all have their fingers in the biotech approval process, which began very slow in the mid-1980’s. If you did not work in a laboratory, you really didn’t have a good idea what biotech was all about. Since 1987 USDA has approved 92% of the nearly 11,600 applications submitted for new biotech products. 4,968 have been approved for corn and 843 for soybeans, says USDA in its report: The First Decade of Genetically Engineered Crops in the United States. Over 6,600 have been for inserting insect or herbicide resistance into plant genetics.

The biotech crops do not yield any higher price at the elevator, and seed costs more, so why are they being adopted so quickly? In the case of soybeans, USDA economists say farmers spend less time managing the crop and have more time available to pursue additional off-farm employment. In other words, instead of walking beans, you are making money elsewhere. Also, USDA says, “Genetically engineered crops also seem to have environmental benefits.
Overall pesticide use is lower for adopters of GE crops, and the adoption of herbicide-tolerant soybeans may indirectly benefit the environment by encouraging the adoption of soil conservation practices.”

Roundup-Ready beans and Bt Corn may be time and soil savers, but at this point the benefit is limited to the producer, which is termed the “first generation” of biotech benefits. The second generation will include such output traits as nutrition enhancement for livestock feed. And the third generation will be pharmaceuticals, or products more easily converted to bio-fuels. Unfortunately, the latter two are still in the laboratory, and the consuming public has not learned of their benefits.

Although the first generation biotech products have no consumer benefit, they have still been in the foodchain and consumers have been consuming foods with genetically enhanced ingredients, such as corn meal, soybean oil, and fructose sweeteners, largely unaware of their genetically enhanced content. Worldwide, biotech crops are widespread, with 200 million acres in 17 countries planted with either herbicide or insect resistance. Not surprisingly, the US has 59% of the acreage, followed by Argentina (20 percent), Canada and Brazil (6 percent each), and China (5 percent)

While some consumers, particularly Europeans, will be uneasy consuming a biotech product, those same individuals should take solace knowing about the significant reduction in pesticide use. USDA says, “Overall pesticide use on corn, soybeans, and cotton declined by about 2.5 million pounds, despite the slight increase in the amount of herbicides applied to soybeans. In addition, glyphosate used on HT crops is less than one-third as toxic to humans, and not as likely to persist in the environment as the herbicides it replaces”

Additionally, the adoption of biotech seeds has resulted in additional benefits that most people do not hear about and recognize. USDA says commodity prices are lower, as the result of biotech adoption. “Estimated benefits to farmers, seed producers, and consumers were around $210 million for Bt cotton, $230 million for herbicide tolerant cotton, and $310 million for herbicide tolerant soybeans. This estimate includes the change in total welfare in both the seed input and commodity output markets. The distribution of benefits varies by crop and technology because the economic incentives to farmers (crop prices and production costs), the payments to technology providers (biotech firms) and seed firms, and the effect of the technology on world crop prices are different for each crop and technology. For example, adoption of herbicide tolerant cotton benefits mainly consumers while Bt cotton benefits farmers and technology providers. Seed firms are by far the largest beneficiaries in the case of soybeans.”

Summary:

In a short ten years, the adoption of biotech seed to assist with crop protection has been very quick. Part of the reason is reduction of pesticide use, but another reason, particularly in the case of Roundup-ready soybeans, the reduction of time spend in crop management has been converted to revenue producing activities. At this point, biotech benefits are limited primarily to producers, with other benefits still in the research and development phase. But the consumer has seen benefits with lower priced food products, attributed to biotech seed. The US has been the leader in biotech adoption, but 40% of the biotech acreage around the world is in other countries.

Stu Ellis