Informes ANTAMA

The future of the European Union agri-food sector will be defined by the strategies in the Green Deal.  Its purpose is to reduce the environmental impact of food systems and attain a more sustainable supply chain. Targets for which agrarian biotechnology can play an essential role. The best example is that of Spain, which has cultivated Bt maize since 1998, the only biotech variety approved for planting in Europe. To analyse the benefits associated with this crop, economists Francisco J. Areal from Newcastle University (United Kingdom) and Laura Riesgo from Pablo de Olavide University prepared a report that assesses the sustainability of Bt maize in Spain from 1998 to 2021 from economic, social and environmental perspectives. The report concludes that

Farmers in Spain and Portugal have been growing Bt maize on an ongoing basis since 1998. During this 21-year period they have backed this biotechnological variety that defends maize farming from attacks by boring beetles, which is an endemic plague present in certain areas of the Iberian Peninsula that causes great losses in production. To analyse the economic and environmental contributions of Bt maize farming in Spain and Portugal between 1998 and 2018, the GM Crops & Food magazine has published the report, ‘Twenty-one years of using insect resistant (GM) maize in Spain and Portugal: farm-level economic and environmental contributions’ by the agrarian economist, Graham Brookes. Since 1998, Bt maize farming has enabled Spanish and Portuguese farmers to obtain additional