Drought-Resistant GM Corn Poses Limited Risk - or Benefit, U.S. Says

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to allow the sale of drought-tolerant corn, making it the first commercial crop genetically modified to resist environmental conditions such as drought rather than pests or insecticides. But while the agency says the strain of GM corn engineered by biotech giant Monsanto Co. is unlikely to pose a plant pest risk, a draft environmental assessment also suggests it doesn’t perform much better in terms of water strain than many conventional corn varieties already on the market. “The reduced yield [trait] does not exceed the natural variation observed in regionally-adapted varieties of conventional corn,” the report says. If successful, the development of such a drought-resistant crop has the potential to tap into a vast market worldwide, where about 15 percent of corns crops are typically lost to drought each year. In North America alone, as much as 40 percent of insurance claims for lost crops cite heavy to moderate drought conditions, according to estimates.