Countries are no longer food-secure without GM crops. Ninety-two percent of globally-traded soybean is now GM. This high saturation level is true also in GM corn which has achieved an 80 percent global trade level and in cotton, canola, and sugarbeet at 90 percent each.
The increasing area for Genetically Modified (GM) crops reverses ill effects of global warming, because GM crops have been contributing significantly in the reduction in greenhouse gas emission.
Without the need for more agricultural land due to higher yield from emerging farm techniques, Dr. Wayne Parrott, a University of Georgia crop science expert said that global farmers have been able to triple cereal production from 650 metric tons (MT) in 1950 to 1.9 billion MT in 2000.
Land use over the 50-year period was about constant at 660 million hectares as of 2000 despite the three times increase in production. The use of vast tract of land which could amount to one billion hectares was avoided due to farm technology.
”Land not used for agriculture was 1.1 billion hectares. Since you save on land, you have more land for other uses,” said Parrott in a Bureau of Agricultural Research-sponsored biotechnology forum.
Crop science experts expressed full confidence in the contribution of GM crops in countering predicted increasing global temperature as a result of emission of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide.
The GM Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn which is resistant to the pest Asiatic corn borer, for instance, may raise yield from the conventional five per MT per hectare to seven to eight MT.
Another substantial contributor to decreased CO2 emission is the elimination of pesticide spray since many GM crops like Bt corn have pest resistance. This consequently wipes out use of fuel for spraying.
London-based PG Economics estimated that decreased pesticide and fuel use from GM spared CO2 emission by a total of 17.7 billion kilos. This comes from the elimination of herbicide and insecticide use over the 17.1 percent of total agricultural area now planted to GM crops.
More important, with this herbicide-resistant trait in the gene inserted in the corn, farmers do not need to till the soil. This restores moisture and stores up CO2 in the soil.
“GM officially started in 1996. Now we have 15.4 million farmers in 29 countries planting GM. If organic farmers will use GM, it will make their life easier because in the end organic and GM farming had the same goal of environmental sustainability,” said Parrott.
If GM was not used by 14 million farmers from 1996 to 2009, PG Economics reported that farmers would have needed to plant on 3.8 million hectares more for soybeans, 5.6 million hectares more for corn, 2.6 million hectares more for cotton and 0.3 million hectares more for canola.
Parrott said farmers in the Philippines have become a global leader in GM planting.
“Philippines has been a leader in the region. It’s in the forefront. You have sensible, logical regulations that were put in place early. You have half a million hectares of GM corn this year, and no other country in the region has that,” he said.
GM planting increases farmers yield and income and prevents farmers from the ill effects of too much spraying of pesticides. Ester Z. Gallardo, PsciJourn MegaManila
