Print This PageReducing the Environmental Impact of Agriculture
Biotech Crops Permit Reduced Pesticide Use
Bollgard cotton has allowed farmers to use 94.5 million kilograms less insecticide
through 2005.
Biotech crops have helped farmers reduce their use of pesticides in crop production. Since 1996, farmers have cut their pesticide use by almost half a billion pounds (224 m kg) with genetically modified (GM) crops, about 7 percent.21 This represents about 40 percent of the annual volume of pesticides used in the European Union.21 In the United States, in 2005 alone farmers used almost 70 million pounds less pesticide by planting biotechnology-derived crops.22
U.K. economists Graham Brookes and Peter Barfoot have quantified changes in the “environmental footprint” of agriculture with GM crops with an environmental index quotient (EIQ).21 The EIQ is an indicator that draws on key toxicity and environmental exposure data related to individual products and allows for pesticide comparisons. Brookes and Barfoot found that the overall environmental impact (EIQ) of pesticide use on GM crops was 15 percent less than pesticide use on non-GM crops, a significant difference.21
Although pesticide impacts vary by country, year, and pesticide use programs, the global trend of reduced pesticide use has been remarkably consistent for a decade.
