Addressing the Externalities from Genetically Modified Pollen Drift on a Heterogeneous Landscape

Mattia C. Mancini, Kent Kovacs, Eric Wailes and Jennie Popp
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Mattia C. Mancini: Department of Geography, Strand Campus, King’s College London, London WC2R 2LS, UK
Kent Kovacs: Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, 217 Agriculture Building, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA
Eric Wailes: Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, 217 Agriculture Building, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA

Land, 2016, vol. 5, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: Genetically modified (GM) crops have single or multiple genes introduced to obtain crop characteristics that cannot be obtained through conventional breeding. Pollen mediated gene flow from GM to non-GM crops causes some crops planted as non-GM to become GM, and this imposes economic losses on farmers who planted a non-GM crop but then have to sell the harvest on a GM market. The economic losses that result when both crops are grown together depend on the institutional arrangements and the type of property rights in place. We analyze how the spatial heterogeneity of a farmer’s fields affects the land allocation between buffers, the GM, and the non-GM crop based on cross-pollination and initial assignment of property rights. Greater spatial heterogeneity reduces the possibility of coexistence of crops on the landscape and increases the economic losses. Buffer zones enforced to reduce cross-pollination result in less coexistence on heterogeneous landscapes.

Keywords: coexistence; GMOs; spatial heterogeneity; economic simulation; spatial optimization; spatial externalities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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