Agricultural Biotechnology and Socioeconomic Effects

Transgenic crops, an early product of agricultural biotechnology, have experienced one of the fastest adoptions of crop technologies in history. Global acreage planted with transgenic crops increased 67-fold between 1996 and 2007 for a total of 284 million acres in 23 countries. Herbicide-tolerant (HT) soybeans and insect-resistant Bt maize constitute over 80% of this acreage. Proponents of transgenic crops see a very positive future with the number of farmers adopting transgenic crops increasing 10-fold up to 100 million or more between 2006 and 2015. However, numerous scholars and policy makers have raised questions about these optimistic outlooks. Much of the debate is focused on health and environmental safety issues. Increasingly, a fourth criterion that addresses the social and economic effects of a product or technology has been proposed for product approval and regulation. These concerns have become part of policy and regulatory processes, even though the significance of the fourth criterion may vary according to the ideological and organizational factors in different countries. This article discusses a number of both positive and negative social and economic impacts agricultural biotechnology may have on (i) farmers, rural communities, and the food system; (ii) the structure and organization of agribusiness and industry; (iii) consumers; (iv) science and technology transfer; and (v) developing countries and the global economy. The article concludes with a review of a number of alternatives that have emerged for incorporating socioeconomic issues into broader public discussion and eventually into informed decision making.