General Article GM crops ten years on: hope, hype and reality

Topic Selected: Biotech and Bioethics
This article is 10 years old. Click here to view the latest articles for this topic.

By Ian Scoones, co-director ESRC STEPS Centre


A decade ago there was much hope and hype about the potential of GM crops. They were going to feed the world and solve poverty and development issues. It was claimed that pest-resistant crops using so-called Bt technologies to resist insect predation could reduce pesticide use and improve farmers’ incomes, and that technologies for dealing with drought or nutrient deficits were in the pipeline. GM crops would help poorer farmers in the developing...

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