GMO crops appear to be en route to recovery, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). GMOs saw a sharp drop in 2015 and 2016 for herbicide tolerant acreage, and some reduced acreages for insect resistant crops. But that was compensated by a significant increase of stacked traits. In 2017, the total GM acreage rose to 189.9 million hectares, and developing countries saw a steady increase, accounting for more than half of the total acreage. Industrial countries on the other hand kept their total growing area stable around 90 million hectares.
The most popular GM crops (Figure 1), like in the years before, is the GM soybean, followed by GM maize, GM cotton and GM canola.
Figure 1. Global GM production of soya, maize, cotton and canola
Eighteen so-called “mega countries” grew 50.000 hectares or more of biotech crops (Figure 2). Among these are, in descending order, USA, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, India, Paraguay, Pakistan, China, South Africa, Bolivia, Uruguay, Australia, Philippines, Myanmar, Sudan, Spain, Mexico and Colombia.
In four countries, almost all crops are GM: USA, Canada and Brazil grow on around 94% of its acreage GM crops, Argentina on 100%.
Figure 2. Global production of GM crops by country
It will remain interesting to see how the new non-GM trend in the USA will impact demands for GM crops. At least at the recent IFT 2018 in Chicago, countless exhibitors advertised their GMO-free ingredients and finished products.
Another trend to watch are the novel genome editing technologies and the resulting agricultural products. Technologies like CRISPR/Cas, TALEN or ZFN appear to raise fewer concerns and objections in the population and with consumer rights organizations than traditional GM technologies. This is interesting from the socio-economic as well as from the scientific perspective for a number of reasons and suggests that much of the concerns around GM were founded in the initial lack of transparency of biotechnology companies, coupled with some ignorance and abysmal marketing.
It is important to put current GM products into perspective though: a number of developing countries have suffered from poor harvests and droughts. And with the predicted climate changes, their situation is unlikely to improve. In addition, the population of sub-Saharan countries is predicted to outpace the growth of the population in China by 2050. It means more people will require food in Africa. And here, it is important to consider the benefits any safe agricultural technology can provide to ensure food security.
