Are GMOs Increasing the Price of Food?

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While the cost of food is impacted by various factors (the price of oil affects transportation costs; drought can affect yield and available supply; etc.), GMOs play an important role in keeping those prices as low as possible.

“Actually, GMOs have contributed to reducing the real cost of food,” explains Graham Brookes, agricultural economist, PG Economics Ltd. “The [GM] technology adopted to date has largely been productivity-enhancing and cost-reducing technology. This means additional global production has arisen from use of the technology, equal to an extra 138 million tonnes [304 billion pounds] of soybeans, 274 million tonnes [604 billion pounds] of corn, 21.7 million tonnes [48 billion pounds] of cotton lint
and 8 million tonnes [18 billion pounds] of canola in the period 1996-2013.”