AgBioForum Volume 9 Number 2
Partial table of contents of interest for seed professionals
(Links are to the original articles)

• Bt Cotton Adoption in The United States and China: International Trade and Welfare Effects
  George B. Frisvold, University of Arizona Jeanne M. Reeves, Cotton Incorporated Russell Tronstad, University of Arizona
  
  Many studies report that Bt cotton has led to significant yield gains, reduced insecticide use, or both in different countries. With rare exception, these studies examine adoption in one region in isolation from adoption in others. This article summarizes the global impacts of Bt cotton adoption in the United States and China based on results from a three-region model of the world cotton market. In 2001, adoption of Bt cot-ton in China and the United States increased world cotton production by 0.7% and reduced the world cotton price by 1.4 cents per pound.
  Global economic benefits were $836 million. Consumer surplus increased $63 million. Chinese producers gained by $428 million and US producers by $179 million. The fall in world price reduced rest-of-world (ROW) producer surplus by $349 million. Net rest-of-world benefits were $69 million, however, because purchaser gains outweighed producer losses.
   

• Agricultural Biotechnology and Organic Agriculture: National Organic Standards and Labeling of GM Products
  Konstantinos Giannakas and Amalia Yiannaka, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  
  The National Organic Program, introduced in 2002, has explicitly linked the markets for organic and genetically modified (GM) products through the provision that organic-labeled food should be free of GM ingredients. This paper models the demand links between the organic, GM, and conventional products and analyzes the market and welfare effects of the introduction of labels for products of biotechnology under the new organic standards.
   

• Who Adopts What Kind of Technologies? The Case of Bt Eggplant in India
  Deepthi Elizabeth Kolady and William Lesser, Cornell University
  
  The public-private partnership involved in the development of Bt eggplant in India is unique in the context of developing countries, where poor farmers' access to technology is limited. The key questions arising in this context are: Who adopts what kind of technology? What are the factors influencing their decisions? We answer these questions using data from a farm-level survey conducted in Maharashtra, India. Our results indicate that factors influencing hybrid adoption exert similar effects on the expected adoption of Bt hybrid eggplant and opposite effects on the decision to adopt Bt open-pollinated varieties (OPV).
  Even though some farmers who decided to grow Bt hybrid eggplant might switch to Bt OPVs when available, most of the early adopters of Bt hybrid would continue to grow Bt hybrid eggplant. Thus, our study gives initial empirical evidence on the economic feasibility of the public-private partnership in the research and development of Bt eggplant in India.
   

• Public Perceptions of Tobacco Biopharming
  Jonathan Nevitt, Bradford F. Mills, Dixie W. Reaves, and George W. Norton, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  
  A telephone survey of United States consumers' views on tobacco biopharming indicates widespread support for developing the technology when it generates a socially beneficial application. Perceptions of risks associated with the technology, however, are split: Most respondents either hold concerns in every risk area presented or in none of them. Willingness to purchase a bio-tobacco-based medicine is bimodal as well. These polarized perceptions point to the challenges faced by policy makers who attempt to implement regulatory oversight of biopharming by balancing the broad-based concerns of the public against the potentially significant benefits of the technology.
   

• Potential Regional Trade Implications of Adopting Bt Cowpea in West and Central Africa
  Augustine S. Langyintuo, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Zimbabwe Jess Lowenberg-DeBoer, Purdue University
  
  This paper used a spatial and temporal price equilibrium model to assess the potential impacts of farmers in West and Central Africa adopting Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp). The results showed that regional cowpea prices would decrease, leading to increased regional demand and increased supply only in adopting countries. Total cowpea traded and regional welfare would increase, but producers in nonadopting countries would lose. The results thus emphasize regional adoption of any Bt cowpea and suggest that policy makers devise ways of ensuring equitable distribution of benefits.
   

• Does Application Matter? An Examination of Public Perception of Agricultural Biotechnology Applications
  Andrew J. Knight, Michigan State University
  
  Whereas most research on public perceptions of genetically modified products have focused on first-generation biotechnologies and genetically modified foods, this paper examines public support for a variety of animal and plant agricultural biotechnology applications and explores whether the determinants of support for each application vary by knowledge, trust, benefits, and sociodemographic variables. The data for this study were gathered from 432 adults in a regional Southwestern telephone survey conducted from March 28 through May 4, 2004. The results revealed that the vehicle used (animal or plant) appears to outweigh both the function and type of application, although nonfood applications tended to receive higher support levels than genetically modified foods. Plant applications received higher support than animal applications. Additionally, the determinants for each biotechnology application were different, and their explanatory power varied by application. Only perceived benefits was significantly related to each biotechnology application.