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Bolivian potato growers use a natural fertiliser so they are not dependent on pesticides and artificial fertilisers.
Enlarge imageThe remaining one per cent are planted in Australia (0.2m ha cotton) and South Africa (0.2m ha combined GE corn, soya and cotton).
Soya and corn account for 82 per cent of the GMO acreage. Add to that cotton and canola, and 99 per cent of the GMO acreage is accounted for.
Herbicide tolerance has consistently been the dominant genetically engineered trait during the six-year period 1996-2001, and accounts for 77 per cent of the GMO acreage. Other traits are insect resistance (15 per cent) and stacked genes for both herbicide tolerance and insect resistance (8 percent).
As a result of consumer resistance, most GE crops are grown for livestock and animal feed, not direct human consumption.
GE wheat is the most recent failure in the agritech sector. Monsanto, the world's largest genetic engineering company, announced in May 2004 that it would not proceed with commercial development of GE wheat due to overwhelming rejection at all market levels.
GE tomatoes and GE tobacco, the first two GE crops to be commercialised, have failed to win market acceptance and have been effectively abandoned. Neither are currently being grown in commercial quantities.
GE potatoes were withdrawn from the US market in 2001 by Monsanto after a series of major market rejections, by food companies such as McDonald’s, Burger King, McCain’s and Pringles.
GE flax seed was taken off the market in 2001 after pressure from the Flax Council of Canada and the Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission. European customers, who buy 60 per cent of Canada’s flax, said they didn't want GE.
GE rice has also faltered. Aventis, now Bayer CropScience, a multinational chemical and pharmaceutical company, decided against commercialising its herbicide resistant GE rice because millers and large domestic and foreign producers threatened to reject it. Aventis sold its CropScience division to Bayer creating further consolidation at the head of the already monopolistic seed and chemical industry.
GE sugar beet has also been rejected by US sugar refiners. The refiners told farmers to avoid GE sugar beet because Japan, which accounts for 80 per cent of the sugar beet pulp market from the US, will not buy GE.
Bayer CropScience decided to abandon GE 'Starlink' corn and withdrew it from the market. The decision came after the 'StarLink' fiasco in 2001, where taco shells were found to contain an unapproved GE corn which was a potential allergen, triggering a huge product recall estimated to cost up to US$1 billion.
In 2003, the 314 US biotech companies reported losses of US $3.2 billion (Wall Street Journal, 2004).
Growth in the GE industry in recent years has almost entirely been due to the planting of GE soy (for animal feed), in countries already growing GE crops.
Soya and corn account for 82 per cent of the GMO acreage. Add to that cotton and canola, and 99 per cent of the GMO acreage is accounted for.
Herbicide tolerance has consistently been the dominant genetically engineered trait during the six-year period 1996-2001, and accounts for 77 per cent of the GMO acreage. Other traits are insect resistance (15 per cent) and stacked genes for both herbicide tolerance and insect resistance (8 percent).
As a result of consumer resistance, most GE crops are grown for livestock and animal feed, not direct human consumption.
GE wheat is the most recent failure in the agritech sector. Monsanto, the world's largest genetic engineering company, announced in May 2004 that it would not proceed with commercial development of GE wheat due to overwhelming rejection at all market levels.
GE tomatoes and GE tobacco, the first two GE crops to be commercialised, have failed to win market acceptance and have been effectively abandoned. Neither are currently being grown in commercial quantities.
GE potatoes were withdrawn from the US market in 2001 by Monsanto after a series of major market rejections, by food companies such as McDonald’s, Burger King, McCain’s and Pringles.
GE flax seed was taken off the market in 2001 after pressure from the Flax Council of Canada and the Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission. European customers, who buy 60 per cent of Canada’s flax, said they didn't want GE.
GE rice has also faltered. Aventis, now Bayer CropScience, a multinational chemical and pharmaceutical company, decided against commercialising its herbicide resistant GE rice because millers and large domestic and foreign producers threatened to reject it. Aventis sold its CropScience division to Bayer creating further consolidation at the head of the already monopolistic seed and chemical industry.
GE sugar beet has also been rejected by US sugar refiners. The refiners told farmers to avoid GE sugar beet because Japan, which accounts for 80 per cent of the sugar beet pulp market from the US, will not buy GE.
Bayer CropScience decided to abandon GE 'Starlink' corn and withdrew it from the market. The decision came after the 'StarLink' fiasco in 2001, where taco shells were found to contain an unapproved GE corn which was a potential allergen, triggering a huge product recall estimated to cost up to US$1 billion.
In 2003, the 314 US biotech companies reported losses of US $3.2 billion (Wall Street Journal, 2004).
Growth in the GE industry in recent years has almost entirely been due to the planting of GE soy (for animal feed), in countries already growing GE crops.
