Biotech Corn Drop More Economics Vs. Consumer Rejection

Since their introduction into the agricultural marketplace, biotech crops has steadily grown in acreage in the countries of the world that have embraced their use. This includes Brazil, Argentina, and the U.S.

But in 2015, something odd happened – according to statistics from the International Service for Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), acreage for biotech corn fell from 449 million acres in 2014 to 440 million acres in 2015 – the first ever year-over-year decline for biotech crops. The majority of this decline came from the U.S., where biotech corn acreage fell from 180 million acres to 175 million acres.

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Naturally, biotech crop opponents were quick to jump on this report as evidence that U.S. consumers were rejecting “frankenfoods” in their diets. Commentaries to this end pointed to the anti-crop stands by companies such as Chipotle and the biotech ingredient labeling law in Vermont as the reasons for this decline.

However, market watchers point to a much more reasonable explanation for the drop in biotech corn acreage in the U.S. – economics. “The prices for the major commodity crops such as corn, soybeans, and canola are all down from prior years, so it appears that the majority of this decline in genetically-modified corn simply meant U.S. farmers were planting other specialty crops in 2015 instead,” said the ISAAA report.

Others pointed to this drop as a sign that the overall market for biotech corn – which stood at approximately 92% of planted corn in 2014 – was a sign of a maturing market. “I’m completely unsurprised to see this slight evidence of cycles, which are normal in agriculture,” said Dr. L. Val Giddings, a Senior Fellow at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, in one online article.

In other words, 2015 was more of a trickle than a gusher for the future wave of biotech corn.

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