Biotech Updates

NCPA Study Shows Benefits of GM Trees

December 23, 2010

If commercialized on a large scale, genetically modified (GM) trees can provide many benefits. Wesley Dwyer and H. Sterling Burnett, intern and fellow, respectively, at the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), enumerates these benefits:

  • Tree species can be modified to enable them to resist pathogens and destructive pests. 
  • Trees modified to produce high yields of cellulose could be a cost-effective source for cellulosic ethanol production, a renewable transportation fuel.
  • Forests of biotech trees could remove carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, more efficiently from the atmosphere than unmodified trees. ·
  • Commercial development of GM trees could reduce the need for timber products. 

Read more on "Biotech Forests: An Environmental Blessing?" at http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=20132