Benefits
Access the Benefits of Biotechnology database
For thousands of years, farmers have been using breeding techniques to genetically modify crops to improve quality and yield. Modern biotechnology allows plant breeders to select genes that produce beneficial traits and move them from one organism to another. Plant biotechnology is far more precise and selective than crossbreeding in producing desired agronomic traits. Learn more about the benefits and positive impacts of plant biotechnology in our updated Plant Biotech 101 handout.
Plant biotechnology has been adopted by farmers worldwide at rates never before seen by any other advances in the history of agriculture. According to the latest report from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), in 2019, biotech crops were grown by 17 million small farmers on 190.4 million hectares in 29 countries. The reason for such impressive adoption rates is simple — plant biotechnology delivers significant and tangible benefits, all the way from the farm to the fork. Learn more about these benefits in the video and infographic below.
For more information, please visit the GMO Answers website, an initiative committed to responding to your questions about how food is grown. Its goal is to make information about biotech crops in food and agriculture easier to access and understand.