Framework for assessing the socio-economic impacts of Bt maize cultivation

Bt maize is the only genetically modified (GM) crop grown in the EU for commercial purposes and so far adopted mainly in Spain. Its cultivation can have a number of socio-economic consequences for farmers, upstream and downstream industries, as well as consumers. The European GMO Socio-Economics Bureau (ESEB) has compiled topics, indicators, methodological guidelines and potential data sources to carry out analyses of these socio-economic effects. This document provides a framework applicable to EU Member States currently growing Bt maize and those potentially cultivating it in the future. Over 30 topics and 100 indicators, which range from farm adoption rates to consumer surplus, have been identified by the ESEB Technical Working Group, which is composed of representatives of Member States and assisted by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. Evidence of impacts in the EU already exists for some topics both ex post and ex ante, but for most topics it is very limited. Methodologies have been developed by the scientific community for many of the topics and indicators, from simple partial budget analysis to complex aggregated models. It is concluded that while methodologies are available for many of the topics and indicators, the main constraint is a lack of data.JRC.D.4-Economics of Agricultur