February 15, 2008

Developing countries grow more GM crops over industrialized regions in 2007

The planting of biotech crops in 2007 have increased dramatically in the developing countries, surpassing that of the industrialized world for the first time.

The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) of the US said that more land will be devoted to genetically engineered crops, as scientists make advances and regulators approve new products.

Among the developing countries, Argentina was the top GM crop producer with 47.2 million acres in biotech corn, soy and cotton. It placed second only to the US in total acreage.

Brazil was the second key producer with over 37 million acres of biotech soy and cotton.

Spain ranked highest among EU countries with about 173,000 acres of genetically engineered corn but 12th overall, behind Paraguay, South Africa, Uruguay and the Philippines.

EU countries posed the strongest resistance to genetically engineered crops on health and environmental concerns.

According to the ISAAA report, eight out of 27 European countries planted biotech crops in 2007, up from six the previous year, totaling about 260,000 acres.

Overall, US farms continued to dominate biotech agriculture with more than 142 million acres devoted to engineered crops, led by soy. The planting of biotech corn also jumped by 40 percent over 2006 to nearly 20 million acres on solid demand from ethanol.