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GM crops and carbon emissions: Frankenfoods reduce global warming
March 13, 2013 Editor 0
At a time when agricultural experts are getting hot under the collar about an Indian village whose claims to be smashing rice-growing records have been extolled here and debunked here, it is useful to have a cool global appraisal of the state of genetically-modified (GM) crops, traditionally seen as most likely source of a new green revolution or (alternatively) as a disaster in embryo. Each year the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), a not-for-profit body, publishes estimates for the number of hectares under GM crops (available for order here). Its most recent report shows that, for the first time, developing countries are growing more hectares of GM crops than rich countries are—a remarkable uptake given that the technology was introduced only two decades ago, and is often seen as suitable mainly for rich farmers.According to ISAAA, 170m hectares of land are planted to GM crops round the world and 52% of them are in emerging markets. Almost half of that share are in five countries, China, India, South Africa, Brazil and Argentina. Brazil is the most important of these: its GM land area rose by more than a fifth in 2012 to 37m hectares, making it the fastest growing GM market in the world and second in size behind America.Rich countries are using more GM crops, too, but only slightly: they planted …
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