Media Section
GMO Crops Worldwide

7

Soybeans (1/10)
GM production area 2008: 65.8 million hectares
Share of production 2008: 70%

A Romanian farmer shows genetically modified soybeans. Romania is the sole producer of GM soybeans on the continent with about 35,000 hectares under cultivation.
Worldwide, Soybeans are the most common GM crop, accounting for over half of all GM crops. Some 70 percent of the world’s soybean production is genetically modified, most of it being produced in the U.S. for export or as food for livestock. All commercialized GM-soybeans are herbicide resistant. (Photo: Reuters)

Corn/Maize (2/10)
GM production area 2008: 37.3 million hectares
Share of production 2008: 24%

A Mexican farmer cuts genetically modified corn in Capulalpan. Growing transgenic corn has been illegal in Mexico since 1998, but farmers say they received GM-corn from a government program.

Corn is the second most important GM-crop worldwide groing in 18 countries. GM-corn includes insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant varieties. Unlike soybean, some GM corn has both modifications “stacked” together. (Photo: Reuters)

Cotton (3/10)
GM production area 2008: 15.5 million hectares
Share of production 2008: 46%

A South African cotton farmer shows off a genetically engineered cotton plant. Some 90 percent of the 3,000 small-scale cotton farmers in the area use the insect-resistant Bt cotton variety. The GM cotton is resistant to the cotton bollworm pest, because it produces a naturally-occurring pesticide.

About 95 percent of the 13.3 million GM farmers grow cotton in China or India. The University of California in San Diego estimated that Bt cotton reduced the cost for pesticides by 25 dollars to 65 dollars per acre, while increasing yields by 5 percent. (Photo: Reuters)

Canola/Rapeseed (4/10)

GM production area 2008: 5.9 million hectares
Share of production 2008: 20%

French farm workers leader and anti-GM activist Jose Bove cuts GM canola in a field near the town of Belpuech.

Canola is fourth in the world league of GM crops. All genetically modified varieties are herbicide resistant. The crop is mainly used for biofuel production. Countries growing it commercially are Australia, the United States, and Canada. (Photo: Reuters)

Golden Rice (5/10)

GM production worldwide 2008: experimental.
Share of production 2008: n.a.

Genetically modified Golden Rice is growing at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Banos, Manila. Golden Rice has been developed by Swiss scientists to fight Vitamin A deficiency. The rice contains a gene that allows the plant to produce beta-carotene, a precursor of Vitamin-A.

Golden Rice’s creators say that it could prevent a high percentage of an estimated 1 to 2 million deaths caused by Vitamin A deficiency annually. Golden rice was meant to be a humanitarian tool, but is not yet available for consumption due to widespread criticism of GM foods. (Photo: Reuters)

Papaya (6/10)

GM production area 2008: 6,500 hectares.
Share of production 2008: n.a.

Greenpeace activists dump thousands of papayas in front of Thailand's Department of Agriculture in Bangkok. The protests were incited by the spread of illegal GM papaya in Thailand.

Since 1998, GM papayas resistant to the ringspot virus have been cultivated in Hawaii and China. Critics say the protein used to make papayas virus-resistant is a potential allergen. (Photo: Reuters)

Cowpea (7/10)

GM production worldwide 2008: experimental
Share of production 2008: n.a.

A researcher in the biotechnology laboratory of the Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) isolates genes from the protein-rich cowpea plant. Projects to further enhance their nutritional content are underway in Africa.

So far, no major African food crop has received GM modification. Researchers at the IITA estimate, however, that biotechnology could help make Africa self-sufficient within 10 years. (Photo: Reuters)

Alfalfa (8/10)

GM production area 2008: 100,000 hectares
Share of production 2008: n.a.

A worker collects alfalfa at Cuatro Cienegas, Mexico. Alfalfa is mostly used as cattle feed in the form of dry hay.

Herbicide tolerant GM alfalfa was commercialized in the United States from 2005 to 2007 but has been suspended pending an environmental impact statement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Critics argue that it will be impossible to separate GM and non-GM alfalfa, because the crop is pollinated by bees with a flying range of up to four miles. (Photo: Reuters)

HoneySweet Plums (9/10)

GM production area 2008: experimental
Share of production 2008: n.a.

GM plums grown in an experimental planting in the U.S. The plums are highly resistant to the Plum pox virus. Plum pox is not yet a problem in the U.S., but all plum varieties grown in the U.S. are susceptible to the virus. The U.S. Department of Agriculture considers this GM-variety as a last resort solution in case the Plum pox becomes endemic. (Photo: Scott Bauer, USDA)

Late Blight Resistant Potatoes (10/10)

GM production area 2008: experimental
Share of production 2008: n.a.

Green tomatoes affected by late blight, which caused the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and 1850s. The fungus is killing potato and tomato plants in home gardens from Maine to Ohio and threatening commercial and organic farms.

The disease is currently staging a comeback with more aggressive strains than during the original outbreak 150 years ago. Researchers at Cornell University have developed GM-potatoes and GM-tomatoes resistant to the fungus. (Photo: Reuters)

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