GM Crops Increase In 2007

Clive James, chairman and founder of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) reports that genetically modified (GM) crops were planted on 282.4 million acres in 2007, reflecting a 12% increase over 2006, and the second highest area increase in the past five years.

"And what we see in the 12th year of commercialization, which is 2007, is that we witnessed a 12% increase in acreage on a global basis. And this has benefited 12 million farmers around the globe," says James. "That’s a very significant increase. And particularly important is that of that 12 million farmers, 11 million farmers were resource poor farmers in developing countries. They represent some of the poorest people in the world."

In 2007, farmers in 23 countries planted genetically modified crops including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Honduras, India, Mexico, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, the United States and Uruguay.

"Of the 23 countries, 12 were developing countries and 11 were industrial countries. So the growth that we are seeing is in the developing countries of the world where this technology can have its biggest impact," continues James. "And this means that you are making a very important contribution to the alleviation of poverty."

According to the report, adoption of genetically modified crops among resource-poor farmers is delivering unprecedented benefits that contribute toward the Millennium Development Goals of reducing poverty by 50% by 2015. The potential in the second decade of genetically modified crop commercialization (2006 through 2015) is enormous.