Growth of GE crops 1996-2011

Adoption of herbicide-tolerant (HT) crops, which carry genes that allow them to survive certain herbicides that previously would have destroyed the crop along with the targeted weeds, has been particularly rapid since they first became available to U.S. farmers in 1996. HT soybeans expanded to 94 percent of U.S. soybean planted acreage, HT cotton dropped slightly to 73 percent of cotton acreage, and HT corn expanded to 72 percent of the corn acreage in 2011. Adoption of insect-resistant (Bt) crops, containing the gene from a soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), has also expanded. Use of Bt cotton reached 75 percent of planted cotton acreage in 2011 and Bt corn use grew from about 1 percent of corn acreage in 1996 to 65 percent in 2011. This chart is found in the ERS data product, Adoption of Genetically Engineered Crops in the U.S., updated in July 2011.

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