Site Search

The setting-up of this website was financially supported by the European Union within the European Commission’s Sixth Framework Programme from 1 January 2005 until 28 February 2007.

The European Commission and other EU agencies are not responsible for the content.

See what’s what.

	Plants
	Foodstuffs
	Ingredients and additives
	Additives according to E numbers
	Enzymes

Please note that the GMO Compass Database currently is being expanded and updated. Please check back for new entries.

Newsletter

Contact

Comments, suggestions or questions?
Please contact us at info@gmo-compass.org

Change font size

USA: Cultivation in 2008

Increase in GM maize

For farmers in the U.S., green genetic engineering remains a matter of course. In 2008 genetically modified plants occupied a total of nearly 60 million hectares, up 10 percent over 2007. The proportion of GM maize also increased another 7 percent to 80 percent in 2008. GM soybeans and GM cotton are quite common.

	Area in mio. ha	Propor-tion in %
GM soy	27.7	92
GM maize	28.2	80
GM cotton	3.2	86
GM sugar beet*	0.25	50
GM plants total	59.35

USA: Cultivation of GM plants in 2008

Cultivation of GM plants in the US: 1996-2008
(The data shows the percentage of the total acreage of a crop): Soybean (above)

Maize (above)

Cotton (above)

Looking at the total cultivation area there are significant shifts observable: land cultivated with soybeans rose 17 percent over 2007 to 30.1 million hectares, but the record level of 2006 has not yet been reached. Maize acreage is down by 7 percent to 35.3 million hectares. A more obvious reduction is in the land cultivated with cotton: it receded 15 percent to 3.7 million hectares.

In the U.S. in 2008 a total of 69 million hectares will be cultivated with maize, soybeans and cotton. Of that, 59.1 million hectares are with GM varieties - in comparison to 55 million hectares the previous year.

Herbicide-tolerant GM sugar beets came on the market for the first time in 2008. According to the German agricultural company KWS, land cultivated with GM sugar beets totaled 250,000 hectares, about half the total sugar beet acreage in the U.S.

GM squash and, in Hawaii, GM papaya are grown in the U.S. on a smaller scale.

Only GM varieties of wheat play no role. So far in the U.S. no GM wheat is approved. In 2008 total wheat acreage increased slightly to 25.7 million hectares.

GM maize: Up to 80 per cent

The proportion of GM maize went up a further 7 percent and now amounts to 80 percent. The share of insect-resistant Bt varieties in the total acreage decreased from 21 to 17 per cent. Even herbicide tolerant varieties were less sold. The trend moves clearly towards varieties with combined insect resistance and herbicide tolerance (stacked genes). Here the proportion rises from 28 to 40 percent of the maize land. Meanwhile there are varieties on the market, which produce two different variants of the Bt protein: one resists the European Corn borer, the other one resists the Corn root worm.

Since overall maize cultivation dropped, the area of GM maize remains almost the same (increase from 27.4 to 27.7 million hectares).

Soy: 92 per cent - more is hardly possible

GM soybean varieties almost saturate the market. Their share remains at a high level and has gone up again in 2008 by one percent to 92 percent. In Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota and Nebraska the GM share is more than 95 percent.

Only herbicide-resistant GM soybeans are grown.

More soy was grown in 2008 than in the previous year, with GM soybean-cultivated land up from 23.6 to 27.7 million hectares.

Cotton: Less agricultural crop land

The GM cotton share fell slightly from 87 to 86 percent. Farmers mostly purchased varieties of GM cotton with combined insect and herbicide resistance (stacked genes) (from 42 to 45 percent).

The total acreage of cotton for 2008 reached the lowest level since 1983 and is only 3.7 million hectares. As a result of this, agriculture crop land for GM cotton decreased to 3.2 million hectares. (2007: 3.9).

The figures come from the official agricultural statistics of the U.S. agriculture authority (USDA). They are generated by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and are based on evaluations of seed sales and representative surveys of farmers. Expected crop losses due to floods in the Midwest are included, based on preliminary estimates.

The report with data of the current growing season appears annually at the end of June and contains data for GM maize, GM soybeans and GM cotton.

* Cultivation data for GM sugar beets was taken from a press release issued by KWS SAAT AG.