GM Corn Benefits Non-GM Corn Planted Nearby, Study Finds

The planting of genetically-modified corn reduces the damage caused by pests on non-modified conventional cornfields nearby, according to a new study. Since they were introduced in 1996, so-called Bt GM corn varieties — which produce a toxin from a soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis, that is fatal to the destructive European corn borer — have reduced pest populations by 28 to 78 percent even in adjacent corn fields across the upper U.S. Midwest, a so-called “halo effect” that benefits farmers who have not invested in the premium seeds, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota. The study, published in the journal Science, also found that seed varieties that kill the corn borer — a moth whose caterpillars eat corn stalks — had not lost any potency since first being planted 14 years ago and that the pests had not developed resistance. The findings were based on records from the major corn-producing states of Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. Anti-GM campaigners claimed the study did not consider the full economic, environmental, and social impacts of GM crops.