A new study out of Purdue University says that banning GMO crops around the world would raise the costs of food while also lifting the amount of carbon dioxide we put into the atmosphere.
Using a model to assess the economic and environmental value of GMO crops, agricultural economists found that replacing GMO corn, soybeans and cotton with conventionally bred varieties worldwide would cause a 0.27 to 2.2 percent increase in food costs, depending on the region, with poorer countries hit hardest. According to the study, published Oct. 27 in the Journal of Environmental Protection, a ban on GMOs would also trigger negative environmental consequences: The conversion of pastures and forests to cropland - to compensate for conventional crops' lower productivity - would release substantial amounts of stored carbon to the atmosphere.
What will be even more dismaying to anti-GMO advocates is that if other countries revved up their GMO productions, it would be beneficial to our globe’s emissions issues.
Conversely, if countries that already plant GMOs expanded their use of genetically modified crops to match the rate of GMO planting in the United States, global greenhouse gas emissions would fall by the equivalent of 0.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide and would allow 0.8 million hectares of cropland (about 2 million acres) to return to forests and pastures.
Interestingly, if there was a global ban on GMOs, the United States’ economy would benefit since rising food prices benefit countries that can export food. On the hurting end of that model? China.