The planting of transgenic crops expressing Bacillus thuringiensis endotoxins is widespread throughout the world; the prolific increase in their application exposes nontarget organisms to toxins designed to control pests. To date, studies have focused upon the effects of Bt endotoxins on specific herbivores and detritivores, without consideration of their persistence within arthropod food webs....

Concern about the effects of pesticides on human health and the environment, has been a major rationale for promoting transgenic crops, often referred to as genetically modified organisms (GMOs), or as genetically enhanced (GE) crops. Companies that sell genetically engineered crop plants claim that biotechnology offers a safe alternative to agricultural chemicals and is necessary to feed the w...

With greater acreages being planted to transgenic crops, the exposure of non-target species to bioengineered material is increasing. Although the slug, Deroceras reticulatum (Müller), is a major agricultural pest throughout the world, Bacillus thuringiensis crops were not intended to target these species. Molluscs are readily consumed by many generalist predators; if these Cry1Ab-endotoxins are...

The main objective of this study was to evaluate what would be the economic and environmental consequences of losing the GMO traits in the U.S. for the major crops of corn, soybeans, and cotton. The first step was to obtain from the literature a range of estimates of the yield loses if we move away from GMO traits in the U.S. The second step was to introduce the yield losses obtained in the fir...

While alfalfa is often recognized as the “Queen of the Forages”, corn may be considered “King of the Crops” and currently ranks as the nation’s largest acreage crop with over 87 million acres. The corn acreage U.S. has continued to increase in recent years for various reasons including greater market demand, a shift towards larger farms that focus on a fewer number of crops, and the development...

Drought is one of the major problems affecting crops production, including corn, in many parts of Iran. In order to detect drought tolerant grain corn hybrids, an experiment with twenty corn hybrids was conducted during 2006 in Qom Province, Iran, using a complete randomized block design with four replications, under optimal moisture and drought stress condition. Results showed diversity among ...

The expansion of industrial agriculture is a primary driver of tropical forest loss (Kartodihardjo and Supriono, 2000; Abdullah and Nakagoshi, 2008; Sodhi et al., 2010). Tropical forests harbor high levels of terrestrial biodiversity and are the principal habitat for apes in Africa and Asia (Junker et al., 2012). Numerous agro-industrial crops are found in ape ranges, including oil palm, peanut...

a r t i c l e i n f o JEL codes: C61 C71 C72 O13 O21 Keywords: Biofuel Supply chain Land use Spatial market equilibrium MPEC The rapid expansion of the biofuel industry diverts a large amount of agricultural crops as energy feedstocks, and in turn affects farm land allocation, feedstock market equilibrium, and agricultural economic development in local areas. In this paper, we propose game-theo...

The expansion of industrial agriculture is a primary driver of tropical forest loss (Kartodihardjo and Supriono, 2000; Abdullah and Nakagoshi, 2008; Sodhi et al., 2010). Tropical forests harbor high levels of terrestrial biodiversity and are the principal habitat for apes in Africa and Asia (Junker et al., 2012). Numerous agro-industrial crops are found in ape ranges, including oil palm, peanut...

The construction of multi-media information resources of crops and livestock is discussed for interactive three-dimensional animation education in the paper. The animation technology, three-dimensional visualization technology and digital entertainment pattern are combined with modern agricultural science technology knowledge and the production process. Based on the application of virtual reali...