Biotech crops have saved the world of over 27-B kg worth of carbon emissions - study

The use of biotech crops has led to saving about 27 billion kg worth of carbon emissions that could have been released in the atmosphere if the technology did not exist, according to the 9th annual report by Graham Brookes of PG Economics, a UK-based company specializing in plant biotechnology.

 

This is equivalent to taking 12 million cars emitting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases off the road, Brookes said.

 

To put this number into perspective, the Philippines alone has only 7.1 million registered motor vehicles nationwide per government data as of 2011.

 

The report, unveiled at the the 11th Policy Roundtable on Building Capacities for Agricultural Competitiveness of Transition Countries in Southeast Asia last May 26, covers the cumulative impact of biotech crops (or genetically modified crops, GMOs) from their commercialization in 1996 up until 2012.

 

"The carbon emissions come from two aspects. The first is lower fuel use. So if you use a tractor less, you're emitting less carbon from the tractor,” explained Brookes in an interview with the media.

 

“Biotech (also) contributes because in many countries crops are sprayed (with pesticide) by mechanical means. So you reduce spraying, you're saving the carbon. Any technology that leads to you spraying less means you will make carbon savings," he added.

 

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have also been associated with pesticide application. A study on the GHG emissions associated with using pesticide to get rid of Aphis glycines, a pest in soybean farms in North America said:

 

“We estimated emissions of 10.6 kg CO2 equivalent greenhouse gasses per hectare of soybeans sprayed with insecticides against the soybean aphid, an insect pest native to Asia that invaded North America in the year 2000.”

 

"The second aspect was how the herbicide tolerance technology has allowed many farmers to switch to no-till (farming), which means they don't release carbon from the soil," Brookes said.

 

No-till farming is a technique that has been used in the past along with good weed control. Genetically modified crops that are herbicide tolerant provided farmers with "very effective, cheap weed control", Brookes said.

 

Some of the benefits of applying the no-till farming technique are (1) less oil erosion, and (2) water retention in the soil. The latter would help a lot in areas where water availability is a constant problem.

 

"Strictly speaking, the technology is not delivering the carbon benefits. But it is enabling farmers to get the benefits from no-till," Brookes said.

 

GMOs have been the subject of much controversy ever since their initial commercialization in the 1990s.

 

Greenpeace, an international and independent global campaigning organization and one of the most vocal opponents of the technology, say that genetically modified crop varieties cause "genetic pollution" when released into the environment.

 

In August last year, anti-GMO activists in Pili, Camarines Sur, vandalized a Golden Rice field trial in the belief that it would be “bad for their health.”

 

Nevertheless, a later report said that a number of Filipino farmers have “decided in favor of the new technology”.

 

“An overwhelming number (83.4%) considered better yield and income as prime considerations for adopting the biotech corn varieties. The other reasons were agronomic in nature: pest resistance (48.9%); good product quality (48.4%); and resistance to drought (24.2%),” according to a study cited in the report. — TJD, GMA News

---

Disclosure: GMA News Online was one of the invited media from Southeast Asia that attended the workshop, which was sponsored by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture, CropLife Asia and AgBiotech.