GM Crop Adoption Reduced Carbon Footprint, Report Shows

"GM crops helped reduce carbon emissions equal to taking 97-256 million cars off the road for one year," according to Graham Brookes, Director of PG Economics and author of the latest report on the Global Socio-Economic and Environmental Impacts 1996-2024. The report was launched on September 17, 2026, via a live webinar joined by 425 participants on Zoom and 4,933 viewers on Facebook.

The webinar, organized by ISAAA Inc. and CropLife Asia, aimed to advance evidence-based policymaking and public acceptance by sharing empirical data on the global economic, agricultural, and environmental impacts of biotech/GM crops while providing an interactive platform for scientific exchange.

ISAAA Executive Director, Dr. Rhodora Romero-Aldemita, presented the highlights of global biotech/GM crop adoption in 2024. "GM crops provide a proven pathway to sustainability. Since 1996, biotech crops have been approved and adopted by 73 countries to increase yields and shelf life, resist pests and diseases, and withstand extreme climate stressors like high salinity and drought," she reported.

According to Brookes, biotech crop adoption from 1996 to 2024 generated nearly $385 billion in cumulative farm income, over half of which benefited farmers in developing countries, while significantly increasing yields for maize, cotton, and soybeans. This enhanced agricultural productivity conserved 25.5 million hectares of land in 2024 alone by avoiding additional conventional farming requirements. Furthermore, biotech farming improved environmental sustainability by reducing pesticide active ingredient use by 6.5% and mitigating up to 387 billion kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions through fuel savings and no-till carbon storage.

Dr. Stuart Smyth, Professor at the University of Saskatchewan, tackled global acceptance and trade of GM crops. He argued that while consumers and regions like the EU show resistance or strict regulation toward GM crops in surveys and policies, real-world behavior reveals a strong reliance on biotech imports and a consumer preference for price and nutrition. At the same time, public acceptance is shifting upward with precise gene-editing tools like CRISPR, expanding biotechnology beyond traditional crops into specialty applications like disease-resistant produce and air-purifying plants.

The webinar is available on-demand on the ISAAA website. For more details, email knowledgecenter@isaaa.org.