Fact Sheets
Agriculture Biotechnology — Increasing Crop Yields for America's Biofuels
Did You Know?
Since the introduction of agricultural biotechnology, farmer's crop yields have increased dramatically in the United States. Crop yields are expected to continue increasing, allowing farmers to produce more corn, soybeans and other foodstuffs on the same number of acres—helping to provide sufficient supplies for both food and biofuels. Here are two examples:
Corn
In the United States, where today 73% of the nation's corn acreage is planted with biotechnology varieties, yields have increased 33.1% since 1996, when the first biotech variety was commercially planted.
Soybeans
With about 90% of the U.S. soybean acreage now planted with biotech varieties, soybean yields have increased 16.7% between 1995 and 2007, from 35.3 bushels/acre to 41.2 bushels/acre.
In addition agricultural biotechnology contributes to reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions because these crop varieties require less plowing than non-biotechnology crops. This means farmers use less fuel, and therefore create lower levels of harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Studies show that biotech crops have saved farmers 441 million gallons of fuel through reduced fuel operations—which has resulted in eliminating nearly 10.2 million pounds of CO2 emissions since 1996. This savings is equal to removing 4 million cars from America's road in one year.
(Source: Brookes, Graham. 2006. Global Impact of Biotech Crops: Socio-Economic and Environmental Effects in the First Ten Years of Commercial Use.)