USDA and Swiss Government Study on Bt Maize

A large meta-analysis of data conducted the USDA Agricultural Research Service and Agroscope (Switzerland’s government agricultural research institute), published on June 6, reveals that genetically modified Bt maize has little impact on nontarget insects and other organisms, especially compared to growing conventional maize. Bt maize has been genetically modified so that it produces proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis to control corn borers, corn rootworms and other major pests of corn. The first Bt corn was approved in 1996 and critics have been suggesting that it also can destroy beneficial insects or other non-targeted organisms.One of the issues with assessments of possible nontarget organism damage by Bt maize has been that each study was limited in scope, environment or size. This paper’s three authors have made up for these shortfalls by systematically pulling together data from studies published between 1997 and 2020 in 12 bibliographic databases, 17 specialized webpages, and the reference sections of 78 review articles that all met the highest standards for research quality.