Economic Impact of Biotech Crops Felt at Farm/Global Levels Says Study

Substantial net economic benefits at the farm level, amounting to $10.1 billion in 2007 and $44.1 billion for the 12-year period (in nominal terms) have been realized from four main biotech crops – soybeans, corn, cotton and canola. This is a major finding of a study Global Impact of Biotech Crops: Income and Production Effects 1996-2007 published in the online journal Agbioforum by Graham Brookes and Peter Barfoot of PG Economics, Ltd., Dorchester, United Kingdom.

Brookes and Barfoot updated the assessment of the impact of commercialized agricultural biotechnology on global agriculture. Specific variables were global economic impacts on farm income, indirect (non-pecuniary) farm-level income effects and impacts on the production base of the four main crops. The use of the technology had a positive impact on adoption (in the US accounting for the equivalent of 25% of the total direct farm income benefit). Biotech crops have also made important contributions to increasing global production levels of the four main crops.

See the full paper at http://www.agbioforum.org/v12n2/v12n2a04-brookes.htm