Poor countries increasingly embrace GM crops

An industry-backed report says poorer countries have adopted biotech farming like never before in another record year for genetically engineered crops.

Farmers in 12 developing countries planted biotech crops in 2007, exceeding the number of industrialized countries for the first time, according to the report released Wednesday by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, a not-for-profit that promotes the use of biotechnology to alleviate poverty and hunger around the world.

Of the 12 million farmers worldwide who sewed genetically engineered seeds in their fields, the report described 11 million as "resource-poor."

Critics, however, warned the embrace signaled greater corporate encroachment on traditional agriculture, and said the limited variety of genetically engineered species available would create a class of poor farmers stuck in a cycle of debt to the small number of multinationals that own patents on the seeds.

They also said much of the harvest is used for animal feed, fabric and processed foods and is not going directly to people's plates.

"It has almost nothing to do with feeding people," said Claire Hope Cummings, a former environmental lawyer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and author of the upcoming book "Uncertain Peril," a critique of biotech farming. "It's an industrial commodity for industrial agriculture."

Clive James, the report's author, said in coming years more and more land will be devoted to genetically engineered foods, especially rice, as scientists make advances and regulators approve new products.

Feed and fiber crops typically precede food in the development of new agricultural technologies, he said, including biotech.

Critics expect it to deliver everything in "one shot," James said. "That's not the real world."

The ISAAA report was sponsored by two philanthropic groups, the Rockefeller Foundation and Ibercaja, a Spanish bank. The advocacy group counts several of the world's largest biotech agriculture companies among its donors.

The report said in 2007, a record 282.3 million acres of the world's cropland were planted with biotech soybeans, corn, cotton and other crops genetically altered to resist pests and herbicides, an increase of about 12 percent from the previous year.

Reduced pesticide spraying and increased yields have brought down the price of production in "a very significant way and a sustainable way," putting more money in poor farmers' pockets, James said.

"Poverty today is a rural phenomenon. It is concentrated in agriculture," James said. "This technology can make a contribution."

The U.S. continued to dominate biotech agriculture with more than 142 million acres devoted to genetically engineered crops, led by soy. The country also saw the planting of biotech corn spike 40 percent compared to the previous year to nearly 20 million acres, driven mainly by the demand for ethanol.

Argentina led developing countries with about 47.2 million acres in biotech corn, soy and cotton, second only to the U.S. Brazil followed in the overall rankings with just over 37 million acres of biotech cotton and soy.

India grew 15.3 million acres of genetically engineered cotton in 2007, its only biotech crop.

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

European countries have been among the most resistant to genetically engineered crops, where health and environmental concerns have long kept them out of farmers' fields. According to the report, eight out of 27 European countries planted biotech crops in 2007, up from six the previous year, totaling about 260,000 acres.

James predicted that European Union requirements for increased use of biofuels would cause that number to rise.

"The momentum of global adoption will just bring Europe along," James said.

San Francisco Chronicle