Social Impacts of GM Crops in Agriculture: A Systematic Literature Review
Abstract
:1. Introduction
Defining Social Impact
2. Material and Methods
Type of paper | Review of other literature |
Bottom-up (First-hand farm level-data) | |
Top-down (Papers drawing on secondary data, including theoretical accounts) | |
Genetic modification | (1) Bt (2) Herbicide-tolerant (3) Other (4) Not specified/discussion at another level |
Crop | (1) Cotton; (2) Maize (3) Soybean; (4) Other (5) Not specified/discussion at another level |
Groups of social impacts addressed | Economic (Yield, farm finances, labour productivity etc.) |
Distributional (Distribution of benefits depending on e.g., gender, farm size, income, education, local-national-global, etc.) | |
Access and ownership (Patents, food sovereignty, market structure, land rights, etc.) | |
Wellbeing (Food security, labour conditions, health, etc.) | |
Cultural heritage (Indigenous knowledge, preserving traditional varieties, etc.) | |
Socio-economic context | (1) Global North (2) Global South (3) Both (4) Categories not relevant. |
Country | All 17 countries appearing in the papers were classified according to a numerical code. |
3. Results
3.1. Overview of Crops, Modifications and Countries
Ranking of countries based on million hectares of GM crops planted [ 39] | Ranking of countries based on appearance in the dataset (number of studies) |
---|---|
USA (73.1) | India (17) |
Brazil (42.2) | South Africa (11) |
Argentina (24.3) | Argentina (6) |
India, Canada (11.6) | Philippines (4) |
China, Paraguay (3.9) | Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, Pakistan (3) |
Pakistan (2.9) | Australia, Mexico, USA, Canada (2) |
South Africa (2.7) | Chile, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Paraguay, Switzerland (1) |
Uruguay 1.6 | |
Bolivia, Philippines, Australia, Burkina Faso, Burma, Mexico, Spain, Colombia, Sudan, Honduras, Chile, Portugal, Cuba, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Costa Rica, Bangladesh (1.0 and lower, descending order) |
3.2. Range of Social Impacts Addressed
The Whole Dataset (99 Publications) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Economics | Distribution | Access | Wellbeing | Cultural Heritage | |
Number of studies addressing specific impact groups 1 | 83 | 53 | 37 | 48 | 15 |
Number of studies addressing only one impact group | 23 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
Only Bottom-Up Studies (36 Publications) | |||||
Economics | Distribution | Access | Wellbeing | Cultural Heritage | |
Number of studies addressing specific impact groups 2 | 31 | 19 | 8 | 11 | 4 |
Percentage bottom-up studies of total studies within each impact group | 37% | 36% | 22% | 23% | 27% |
3.3. How Are Different Social Impacts Addressed?
3.4. The Example of Bt Cotton
4. Discussion and Conclusions
- -
- Economic studies present a more positive picture of the role of GM crops in socially sustainable agriculture than is warranted, looking at the broader set of social impacts.
- -
- The way in which GM crops are governed today reinforces market dominance by private industry and particularly reduces the possibilities for GM crops to benefit poorer and more marginalised farmers.
- -
- There is a clear lack of knowledge regarding the social impacts of GM crop introduction for farmers in the Global North.
Supplementary Files
Supplementary File 1Supplementary File 2Acknowledgments
Author Contributions
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Fischer, K.; Ekener-Petersen, E.; Rydhmer, L.; Björnberg, K.E. Social Impacts of GM Crops in Agriculture: A Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability 2015, 7, 8598-8620. https://doi.org/10.3390/su7078598
Fischer K, Ekener-Petersen E, Rydhmer L, Björnberg KE. Social Impacts of GM Crops in Agriculture: A Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability. 2015; 7(7):8598-8620. https://doi.org/10.3390/su7078598
Chicago/Turabian StyleFischer, Klara, Elisabeth Ekener-Petersen, Lotta Rydhmer, and Karin Edvardsson Björnberg. 2015. "Social Impacts of GM Crops in Agriculture: A Systematic Literature Review" Sustainability 7, no. 7: 8598-8620. https://doi.org/10.3390/su7078598