GMOs: Brazil's export competitiveness and new forms of coordination

this article compares brazil's export competitiveness with both the us and argentina in the second half of the '90 when both these latter countries had widely adopted transgenic crops, particularly in the case of soja and to a lesser extent for corn. it demonstrates that even without using gmos, brazil increased its international market share and showed itself competitive in both yields and costs. a review of the available literature further shows that there is no conclusive evidence of the benefits to be derived from this first generation of gmos. these conclusions suggest that, rather than lobbying for the use of gmos, brazil should focus on impact studies and the development of segregation and identity preservation systems which would permit co-existence between gmo, conventional and organic production systems.