Study claims GM crops save U.S. farms billionsSAN DIEGO, (Financial Times) 6/27/2001 - The first comprehensive estimateof the benefits of genetically modified crops claims that they are alreadysaving US farmers billions of dollars a year through a combination oflower inputs and increased yields - and they could save billions ofdollars more if growers were not held back by fears of consumerresistance.The study, carried out by the National Centre for Food and AgriculturalPolicy in Washington with support from the biotechnology industry and theRockefeller Foundation, was presented at the Bio 2001 conference in SanDiego. It looked at 30 crops that have been genetically engineered forpest resistance, including a wide range of fruit and vegetables as well ascereals and cotton.It assessed the economic benefits to farmers and the environmental gainsthrough reduced applications of pesticides and weed-killers but did notinclude the negative factors emphasised by anti-GM campaigners: the impacton wildlife and possible health hazards.Leonard Gianessi, the study director, presented the first eight cropassessments to the conference. The full study would be completed inSeptember, he said, "but I can tell you already that we will see severalbillion dollars worth of additional production and savings to growers as aresult of GM crops".The largest benefit seen for any one crop was in soya beans, where 63 percent of the US crop planted this year - on 49m acres - is geneticallyengineered to resist Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. Growers have to applyRoundup only once to kill all weeds, whereas non-GM soya requires three orfour herbicide applications; the average saving in weed control is Dollars15 per acre, according to the NCFAP study."If US growers no longer planted the GM herbicide-tolerant soybeancultivars, they would likely substitute alternative herbicides which wouldincrease soybean production costs by Dollars 735m a year," Mr Gianessiconcluded. For Bt cotton, which kills the crop's main insect pests, thestudy found that pesticide use in the US had been cut by more than 1m kgper year, production had increased by 100m kg per year and growers weremaking Dollars 99m a year more in net revenues.But some GM crops, incl-uding sugar beet, potatoes and sweetcorn (maize),are not being grown commercially, although they have received regulatoryapproval. That is because farmers do not want to risk losing sales throughconsumers' reluctance to buy. The study concluded that Florida growerscould produce 10m kg more sweetcorn and cut insecticide use by 80 per cent(50,000 kg per year) by switching to a Bt variety marketed by Syngenta."Despite the potential benefits, Florida sweetcorn growers are notplanting the (GM) cultivars due to concerns regarding potential lostsales."