GM Crops Save Lives in Asia, Agri Consultant Explains

Genetic engineering of crops saved the lives of countless small-acreage farmers in Asia, that is according to James McClaren, president of StrathKirn Inc., an agriculture consulting company based in Missouri.

"In the late '90s, the thought was that this was just a technology for big corporate farms in the U.S. and it was going to rob the subsistence farmers of the world of their livelihood. Well, it turned out that GM is the best thing that ever happened to them. It's actually been more beneficial to those people than to the big farmers," said McClaren during a conference attended by agricultural consultants. He also elaborated on the misuse of pesticides in Southeast Asia, which is causing harm in the health of farmers.

"It (GM technology) has reduced insecticide use by 60 percent," McLaren said. "That generated over $90 an acre increase in net income to those farmers. It's a very similar story in cotton. There are 22 (million) to 27 million acres of Bt cotton growing in India today by seven million farmers, generating $119 extra per acre on GM versus insecticide. That's a lot of money for the resource-poor farmer. That takes them from subsistence to have money to sell something in the marketplace and have cash flow. That's because of one gene," he added.

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