Can conventional crops be used just as easily to produce biofuels?
It’s true that traditional crops can and are used to produce biofuels. But plant biotechnology can help produce these fuels more economically and in a more environmentally friendly manner in two ways: • First, yields are higher with Bt corn because this enhanced corn has built-in protection against insect pests like the European corn borer. Bt corn, so-named because it contains the naturally occurring soil bacterium bacillus thuringiensis, also requires less spraying to control insect pests. Corn is used to produce more than 90 percent of the ethanol in the United States. • Second, researchers are using biotechnology to develop new tools to more efficiently use waste plant products such as grass clippings or corn stalks to produce ethanol and other products. That’s expected to make ethanol even cheaper.
