Do GMOs reduce biodiversity?
All domesticated farm crops, both GMO and non-GMO, reduce the space and habitat available for wild species, and in that sense all crops do tend to reduce biodiversity. A few GMO crops may do this slightly more than their conventional counterparts. In 2003 the UK released data from actual farm fields planted with herbicide-tolerant GMO maize, sugarbeets, and oilseed rape, compared to data from fields where non-GMO varieties of the same crops were planted and conventionally grown. This comparison showed that in fields of sugarbeets and oilseed rape there were slightly fewer weeds in the GMO fields than in the non-GMO fields. This was because the weeds could be killed more efficiently in the fields with the herbicide-tolerant GMO crops. Fewer weeds and more efficient herbicide use are precisely the advantages that farmers in the UK seek when they consider the use of herbicide-tolerant GMO crops, of course. To refer to fewer weeds in a farm field as a “loss of biodiversity” tends to ignore
