For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Genetic Engineering page and our Millions Against Monsanto page.
That’s what genetic engineering advocates claim. But science (and a shocking number of developing-world suicides) debunk this myth.

BIO, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, says that a genetically engineered crop improves insect resistance, enhances herbicide tolerance, and facilitates the use of more environmentally sustainable farming practices by generating higher crop yields with fewer inputs. They say it lowers the amount of agricultural chemicals required by crops; creates crops with enhanced nutrition profiles that solve vitamin and nutrient deficiencies; produces foods free of allergens and toxins such as mycotoxin; and improves food and crop oil content to help improve cardiovascular health.

Sounds good?

Monsanto even ran an advertising campaign warning of an exploding world population and claiming that its “advanced seeds can help farmers meet the world’s demand for food, clothing and fuel-while also helping to reduce the need for water, land, pesticides, and fossil fuels.”

The problem is, these claims are false, or at least are not supported by factual evidence. GE crop yields are not consistently higher than non-GE crops, and genetic engineering can have devastating environmental, economic, and health consequences.

A stunning report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released in 2009, “Failure to Yield,” is the first to evaluate in detail the aggregate yield effect of GMOs after more than twenty years research and thirteen years of commercialization in the US. Some of the report’s conclusions:

 GE soybeans do not produce increased yields at all, and GE corn has only marginally increased yield.  Overall, corn and soybean yields have risen over the past fifteen years, but this is mainly because of traditional breeding or improvement in agricultural practices. More crop rotations, longer rotations, and a larger variety of crops are more eco-friendly and tend to reduce crop losses from pests and diseases, which in turn increases yields.  Since 1987 there have been thousands of field trials for GE-and all this time, only Bt corn (corn that has been genetically altered to express the bacterial Bt toxin, which is poisonous to certain insect pests) has been shown to increase yield, but has only done so marginally.