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- Title
Economic Challenges of Transgenic Crops: The Case of Bt Cotton.
- Authors
Barnett, Barry J.; Gibson, Brandon O.
- Abstract
Over the past century, technological advances, in concert with increased extraction of nonrenewable resources, have forestalled the realization of the Malthusian prediction. Transgenic crops have been genetically modified by the insertion of genetic material from another species. These modifications create crops with certain beneficial characteristics. Already available to farmers are transgenic corn, potatoes, and cotton that produce an insecticide in the plant tissue. No less than eight additional transgenic crop technologies are currently under review by federal regulatory authorities. Critics have argued that the potential environmental benefits of transgenic crops are overshadowed by the risks associated with introducing genetically altered species into existing ecosystems. Transgenic herbicide-resistant corn and soybeans are now widely used. These crops allow for effective weed control using a single broad-spectrum herbicide applied directly over the crop. The article presents the case-study of Bt cotton that reveals the difficulties of establishing commercial property rights in the case of seeds and plants that are necessarily part of a larger ecological system.
- Subjects
AGRICULTURAL innovations; TRANSGENIC plants; PROPERTY rights; BIOTIC communities; MALVACEAE; FEDERAL regulation
- Publication
Journal of Economic Issues (Association for Evolutionary Economics), 1999, Vol 33, Issue 3, p647
- ISSN
0021-3624
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1080/00213624.1999.11506190