[opentalk]

From article

… and net yields from applied genetic engineering in the United States are only a bit higher (and then only in monocrop systems) than net yields from seeds developed using more conventional techniques.

All of this explains why producers of genetically engineered seeds feel they need protection.

[Aussiebabe]

It is amazing how stupid farmers are around the world, they keep buying all these poor performing GM seeds...farmers must be the dumbest people in the world. It is ready hard to understand how the use keeps expanding each year, especially in the developing countries where the farmers have less resources.....the farmers are just losing all their money paying for these GM seeds. They should just produce organic crops and they will all become wealthy.

[Mr. Lucky]

Yeah, or it could betray that this writer for the New York Times is wholly incompetent to discuss farming.

The advantage of GMO corn or soybeans isn't so much that they yield that much more than a more traditional variety (in an optimal year the yields wouldn't be all that different; in a year of drought or other stress the yields can be substantially greater), but that the inputs necessary to raise a good crop are dramatically reduced.