Exposed: the great GM crops myth

A study conducted over 3 years by the University of Kansas has found that Monsanto genetically modified soya had a 10% lower yield than conventional varieties, thus confirming the results of an earlier study by the University of Nebraska.
Further support is provided by the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, which last week published the results of the largest study ever conducted into GM crops and concluded that they are not the answer to world hunger.
Monsanto’s profits in 2007 were $993 million, 44% up on 2006 – good news for the shareholders but of little use to anyone else.

Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.

The study – carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas in the US grain belt – has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it increases yields.

Professor Barney Gordon, of the university’s department of agronomy, said he started the research – reported in the journal Better Crops – because many farmers who had changed over to the GM crop had “noticed that yields are not as high as expected even under optimal conditions”. He added: “People were asking the question ‘how come I don’t get as high a yield as I used to?’...

Posted by Watson

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