Replies to post #205553 on Biotech Values

[linhdtu]

Well I wonder about all the points/counterpoints cited in the article. My common sense is that I don't expect much controversial opinions against GMO coming from academia as we all know on which side of the bread the butter is really on in terms of grant money all these agriculture departments are receiving.
My gut tells me private money dwarf public money.
I will have to start rethinking my generally positive opinion of GMO mostly because I was thinking of the increase in yield. But may be not so much.

[DewDiligence]

Re: GMOs and crop yields

The NYT article quotes MON’s CTO:

“Every farmer is a smart businessperson, and a farmer is not going to pay for a technology if they don’t think it provides a major benefit. Biotech tools have clearly driven yield increases enormously.”

That yields of row crops such as corn and soybeans have increased over time is indisputable (and this is shown in the NYT article’s graphs). What’s unclear is what proportion of the increased yield stems from germplasm improvements versus genetically-engineered traits.

Seed companies such as MON introduce new (higher-yielding) germplasm every year, but this aspect of the business is unknown by much of the general public and is ignored by anti-GMO activists.