Biotech crops lower world's carbon emissions, says researcher

After trying other angles in recent months to convince the world that bioengineered crops are good for the environment, the U.S. Grains Council—a biocrop advocate—now quotes a U.K. researcher that says they emit less carbon.

The group says a peer-reviewed study on biocrops' global economic and environmental impact shows clear reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.

Study author Graham Brookes, director of PG Economics Limited of Dorchester, United Kingdom found that in 2005, certain herbicide-tolerant biotech crops planted using conservation tillage practices (i.e. farming without having to break the soil by tilling) helped to keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Insect-resistant crops dramatically reduced the need for spraying, which "also significantly reduced farm fuel usage."

All told, biotech crops, planted during their 10th year of use on 87 million hectares (215 million acres) by 8.5 million farmers, reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 9 billion kg. (8.9 million tons), his study found. That's the equivalent to removing nearly 4 million family cars from the road for an entire year, according to Brookes.

"Their environmental performance during the first decade of use shows the important role [biotech crops are] playing both now and in the future in helping global agriculture reduce its greenhouse gas emissions," Brookes said.

According to Brookes, countries such as the United States, Canada and Argentina have led the way toward these environmental benefits. There and elsewhere, insect-resistant biotech crops also have reduced sprayings. It all adds up to less tillage and reduced field operations, he said.

Brookes' study estimates that since their commercialization in 1996, biotech crops have saved farmers 1,679 million liters (441 million gallons) of fuel through reduced field operations, eliminating 4,613 million kg. of carbon dioxide emissions.

Disturbing the soil with conventional tillage apparently releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. No- and low-tillage cropping systems that use biotech herbicide-tolerant varieties, Brookes said, leave more plant residue on the soil's surface, sequestering the carbon and contributing to soil and water conservation.

According to Brookes' estimates, biotech crops contributed $5 billion in net farm-level economic benefit to farmers.

Combining biotech insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant traits in corn has boosted farm income by more than $3.1 billion since the traits' introductions, Brookes noted.

Brookes' study, GM Crops: The First 10 Years - Global Socio-economic and Environmental Impacts, was commissioned by Monsanto and was published in the Jan. 17, 2007 issue of AgBioFourm.

While an announcement today promised the complete study would be found on the U.S. Grains Council website, http://www.grains.org/, and the ISAAA website, http://www.isaaa.org/, it couldn't be found on either at the time of this writing.