The study estimates farmers in "Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin received cumulative economic benefits of nearly $7 billion between 1996-2009, with benefits of more than $4 billion for non-Bt corn farmers alone." It also estimates that the borer population in adjacent non-Bt fields dropped by 28 to 73 percent in Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
These benefits, according the researchers, are due to "areawide suppression of corn borers stemming from long-term plantings of Bt-protected crops." The report also indicates that the use of "refuge crops- the planting of non-Bt crops adjacent to fields of Bt crops, providing a refuge to which pests can retreat" and slowing the corn borer's resistance to Bt, has been important in providing these benefits.
The study was led by William Hutchinson, head of the entomology department at the University of Minnesota, and Paul Mitchell, an agricultural economist at the University of Wisconsin, according to the Associated Press.
Mitchell said that the benefits of using a refuge showed that "resistance management is even more important than we thought."
Genetically modified crops have been the subject of criticism "from people who doubt their safety and fear the consequences if the genes find their way into the wild or other species, potentially putting the natural world and the food supply at risk in ways that can be difficult to predict." Hutchinson, however, said that "the best current science shows no negative environmental impact from Bt corn."
To read the USDA News Release, click here.
To read the Associated Press story, click here.
Posted: 10/08/2010
