Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
C
ONCLUSION
The role that biotechnology plays in agriculture in the United States and
globally depends on a number of factors and uncertainties. As the USDA
Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture report
indicates, “agricultural biotechnology sits at the crossroads of other debates on
the future of American and world agriculture, on international trade relations,
on biological diversity and the development of international instruments
related to its preservation and exploitation, on the role of the multinational
corporations, and on how best to build public confidence in rapidly evolving
emerging technologies in general” (p.2.). One thing seems certain, however:
the ultimate contribution of agricultural biotechnology will depend on our
ability to identify and measure its potential benefits and its risks as well as
their distribution.
Table 6. Benefits of GE Techniques and Their Distribution
(from Estimates in Related Studies)
Share of the total benefits
Total
benefits
Study
Year
$ million
Percent
Bt cotton
Falck-Zepeda et al. (1999)
1996
134
43
47
6
Falck-Zepeda et al. (2000b)
1996
240
59
26
9
6
Falck-Zepeda et al. (2000a)
1997
190
43
44
7
6
Falck-Zepeda et al. (1999)
1998
213
46
43
7
4
Frisvold et al. (2000)
1996-98
131-164
5-6
46
33
18
EPA (2000)
1
1996-99
16.2-45.9
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
Price et al. (2003)
1997
210
29
35
14
22
Herbicide-tolerant soybeans
Falck-Zepeda et al. (2000a)
1997-Low
elasticity
2
1,100
77
10
4
9
1997-High
elasticity
3
437
29
18
17
28
Moschini et al. (2000)
1999
804
20
45
10
26
Price et al. (2003)
1997
310
20
68
5
6
n.a. = Not applicable.
ROW = Rest of the world.
1
Limited to U.S. farmers.
