No matter where one stands on the Genetically-Modified (GM) food divide, a new study appearing in the journal Nature provides evidence that the presence of GM crops is a boon to all other nearby crops, including non-GM crops, positively increasing the yields of both GM and non-GM foods.
Crops that are genetically-modified are often done so for two main reasons; to increase their yields, and to give them greater defenses against their common predators. It's the latter function of GM crops that is proving to be beneficial to other nearby crops.
The particular crop used in the study was a strain of GM cotton that produces a bacterial insecticide to ward off some of the pests that routinely feast on it. After its introduction, there was a marked increase in the number of pest predators, and a decrease in the number of plant damaging aphids, despite the GM cotton not actually having any defense against aphids.
This effect spilled over into nearby fields containing non-GM maize, soybean and peanut crops, reducing the need to use insecticide on those crops, and answering the oft-debated question of whether GM crops that don't require pesticide use to deter certain pests would have the negative result of allowing other pests to flourish, and damage other nearby crops.
"The argument was that, with cotton crops needing no pesticide spraying, other pests would go crazy so you would subsequently have to spray lots more pesticide," said Professor Guy Poppy, University of Southhampton . "This is also the first time it has been shown comprehensively that the surrounding fields benefited from being next to GM crops."
While the news won't sway anyone staunchly against the consumption of GM foods, it does show that their mere presence is not harmful, and may in fact be beneficial in many cases for other crops. And with a global population expected to swell to 9 billion people by 2050, we'll need all the help we can get, GM or otherwise, to keep them well fed.
