What is the advantages of GMO? What is the principle of disease resistance of GMO and economic advantages?

Expert response from Scott Kohne

NAFTA Market Acceptance Manager, Seeds & Traits Unit, BBASF

Monday, 08/12/2014 14:59

According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), between 1996 and 2012, GM crops contributed to food security, sustainability, the environment and climate change in many ways, including: 

• Increasing crop production valued at US$116.9 billion
• Conserving biodiversity by saving 123 million hectares of land
• Helping to alleviate poverty for 16.5 million small, resource-poor farmers and farm families (equaling approximately 65 million people total)
• Reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint by reducing CO₂ emissions by 26.7 billion kg (equal to taking 11.8 million cars off the road for one year)

As a practical tool for farmers, GM technology provides a number of solutions useful to farmers today. A perfect example of the importance of creating disease-resistant plants is the case of the rainbow papaya in the United States. Because of technology, US consumers have access to an abundant supply of fresh papaya from Hawaii, most of which is derived from a GM variety that was created by scientists at the University of Hawaii. This variety is resistant to a devastating disease — papaya ringspot virus. 

By 1997, this virus had almost destroyed Hawaii’s papaya industry. Production fell by nearly 40 percent, and the state’s once-$17 million business struggled to survive as farmers went out of business. Within four years after commercialization of the rainbow papaya, production returned to the same approximate levels it sustained before the ringspot virus invasion.

• Learn more about the value of papaya in the developing world and the benefits of the transgenic papaya. 
• Watch a brief video on how the rainbow papaya was created and its benefits.
• Read more about how a world with no GMOs might affect the average person.