MINNEAPOLIS — This corn turns out to be a very good neighbor.
Corn that has been genetically engineered to resist attacking borers produces a “halo effect” that provides huge benefits to other corn planted nearby, a new study finds. Because the borers that attack the genetically modified crops die, there are fewer of them to go after the non-modified version.
Given that the corn borer has cost U.S. farmers $1 billion a year, the economic benefits are dramatic, according to the report today in the journal Science.
The genetically modified plants, called Bt corn, have had an economic benefit of $6.9 billion during the past 14 years in the five Upper Midwest corn-producing states studied, concluded the researchers.
They said they were surprised to find that non-Bt corn acres reaped 62 percent of the benefit, or $4.3 billion. That is because of the pest-control effect and because non-Bt seed is cheaper.
Bt corn has become highly popular since it hit the market in 1996. It is now planted on about 63 percent of all U.S. corn acres.
