Re: Re: SOC/BIO: US Consumers Favor GM Crops That Reduce Pesticide Use

From: CurtAdams@aol.com
Date: Sat Jan 15 2000 - 20:05:24 MST


In a message dated 1/15/00 15:36:14, you wrote:

>In a message dated 1/15/00 3:58:51 PM Central Standard Time,
>CurtAdams@aol.com writes:
>
>> In addition, the farmer can
>> reduce the acreage of soybeans, reducing water consumption, habitat
>> destruction, etc.
>>
>
>I don't think that will happen....why would a farmer reduce his acerage? I
>think he'd continue to plant the same amount of acerage and make more
>money....(all things of course...being equal)

It's a global effect. There's only so much demand for soybeans
(oversimplifying somewhat, there's more precise economics). The use of
soybeans will almost certainly increase more slowly than the productivity, so
the total amount of land needed to grow the beans drops. The price will fall
due to oversupply until some farmers give up and quit.

If the cheap new soybeans get used to replace some other commodity, the land
for the other commodity gets freed up.



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:26:16 MST