Value of modified corn is more in reducing losses than boosting
yields Feb. 14, 2013 A team of UW-Madison researchers has found
that yields of genetically modified corn vary widely compared to
conventional crops, but production risk is reduced — giving
farmers more certainty about the yield levels they can expect.
Photo: Jeff Miller While there's no end of robust and heated
conversation about genetically modified foods, there are
strikingly few comprehensive studies that put a numeric value on
the costs and benefits. Now, there's more to talk about. By
analyzing two decades worth of corn yield data from Wisconsin, a
team of UW-Madison researchers has quantified the impact that
various popular transgenes have on grain yield and production
risk compared to conventional corn. Their analysis, published
online in a Nature Biotechnology correspondence article on Feb.
7, confirms the general understanding that the major benefit of
genetically modified (GM) corn doesn't come from increasing
yields in average or good