Washington, DC
July 11, 2003

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) today released a special analysis of the adoption of corn biotechnology in 10 major corn producing US states. NASS began monitoring U.S. corn crop biotechnology adoption in 2000. Tables in this special analysis provide information on the number of farms planting Bt corn and Bt acreage by percent of corn area reported as planted with Bt varieties.

Ten states are included in this special analysis: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Combined, these states planted 61.3 million acres of corn in 2002, which represents 77 percent of the total corn planted area in the U.S. Of these 61.3 million acres, 45.1 (74 percent) of corn was planted with non-Bt varieties and 16.2 million acres (26 percent) to varieties containing the Bt gene.

The report is available on-line at www.usda.gov/nass/pubs/biocorn.htm or as a PDF file at http://www.usda.gov/nass/pubs/bioc0703.pdf .

 Acreages planted with biotechnology corn, cotton, and soybeans are reported in the Prospective Plantings and Acreage reports released every March and June, respectively.

For more information about this special analysis please contact Mark Harris, Chief, Crops Branch, at (202) 720-2127. All NASS reports are available on the web and can be accessed at www.usda.gov/nass/