This paper is relevant to the impact areas in the following areas:
| Crops | Cotton, Maize, Other, Papaya, Potato, Soybean |
| Traits | Not Trait-Specific |
| Countries | Not country-specific |
| Regions | Not region-specific |
| Tags | economics, environmental, global crops, global review, health, tillage |
This article updates the assessment of the impact commercialized agricultural biotechnology is having on global agriculture from an environmental perspective. It focuses on the impact of changes in pesticide use and greenhouse gas emissions arising from the use of biotech crops. The technology has reduced pesticide spraying by 352 million kg (-8.4%) and, as a result, decreased the environmental impact associated with herbicide and insecticide use on these crops (as measured by the indicator the environmental impact quotient) by 16.3%. The technology has also significantly reduced the release of greenhouse gas emissions from this cropping area, which, in 2008, was equivalent to removing 6.9 million cars from the roads.
Global Impact of Biotech Crops: Environmental Effects, 1996-2008 (held on an external server, and so may require additional authentication details)
CropLife International fully acknowledges the source and authors of the publication as detailed above.