The Economic and Environmental Impacts of Agbiotech A Global Perspective

"After almost fifteen years in the laboratory and in the test plots, bioengineered crops arrived to the market in the mid-1990s. Adoption was rapid and widespread. In 1996, less than 4 million acres in six countries were planted with bioengineered plants. By 2001, worldwide adoption had expanded to more than 115 million acres." The foretelling of a scientific revolution has persistently raised expectations on the potential of agrobiotechnology, and first-generation agrobiotechnologies have had to confront such expectations in the field and in the market. The Economics and Environmental Impacts of Agbiotech: A Global Perspective explains how well they have fared. It brings together leading authors from around the world who have analyzed the production, environmental and economic impacts of first generation agrobiotechnologies. By pooling experiences across various countries, time periods, crops, and traits this global panel synthesizes a complete picture of the impacts of first generation agrobiotechnologies. The Economics and Environmental Impacts of Agbiotech: A Global Perspective offers this assessment, accounting for the full range of differences in geography, weather, pests, farm structures and institutions that had not been completed previously, and answers these important questions: *What were the factors driving the widespread adoption of these first generation agrobiotechnologies? *What were their economic and environmental impacts? *How were such impacts distributed among innovators and adopters, developed and developing countries, exporters and importers, domestic and foreign consumers? *How were such impacts and their distribution affected by market structures and government policies?