Evaluating the Economic and Environmental Impacts of a Global GMO Ban

Harry  Mahaffey; Farzad  Taheripour; Wallace E.  Tyner

doi:10.4236/jep.2016.711127

Harry Mahaffey¹, Farzad Taheripour²^*, Wallace E. Tyner²

Abstract:

The objective of this research is to assess the global economic and greenhouse gas emission impacts of banning GMO crops. This is done by modeling two counterfac-tual scenarios and evaluating them apart and in combination using a well-know Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, GTAP-BIO. The first scenario models the impact of a global GMO ban. The second scenario models the impact of increased GMO penetration. The focus is on the price and welfare impacts, and land use change greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with GMO technologies. Much of the prior work on the economic impacts of GMO technology has relied on a combination of partial equilibrium analysis and econometric techniques. However, CGE model-ling is a way of analyzing economy-wide impacts that take into account the linkages in the global economy. Here the goal is to contribute to the literature on the benefits of GMO technology by estimating the impacts on price, supply and welfare. Food price impacts range from an increase of 0.27% to 2.2%, depending on the region. Total welfare losses associated with loss of GMO technology total up to $9.75 bil-lion. The loss of GMO traits as an intensification technology has not only economic impacts, but also environmental ones. The full environmental analysis of GMO is not undertaken here. Rather we model the land use change owing to the loss of GMO traits and calculate the associated increase in GHG emissions. We predict a substan-tial increase in GHG emissions if GMO technology is banned.

Keywords: GMO Crops, Productivity, Computable General Equilibrium, Economic Impacts, Land Use Change

Cite this paper: Mahaffey, H. , Taheripour, F. and Tyner, W. (2016) Evaluating the Economic and Environmental Impacts of a Global GMO Ban. Journal of Environmental Protection, 7, 1522-1546. doi: 10.4236/jep.2016.711127.

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