The environmental impact of maize (corn) and cotton crops on US freshwater ecosystems has been decreasing over the past decade, mainly because of the use of genetically modified plants that require less added pesticide.
Sangwon Suh and Yi Yang at the University of California, Santa Barbara, assessed the local environmental impacts of crops, including pollution from direct runoff of fertilizers and pesticides, as well as from processing and transportation. They found that the impact of maize and cotton has decreased by about 50% over the past decade. However, the impact of soya-bean crops has increased threefold, owing to the spread of an invasive soya-bean pest and a consequent rise in the use of insecticides.
The authors say that further improvements may be more difficult, because pests and weeds are beginning to develop resistance to the pesticides produced by the modified crops.
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Ecological impact of crops drops. Nature 525, 429 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/525429c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/525429c
