What are the socio-economic impacts of genetically modified crops worldwide? A systematic map protocol

Abstract

Background: Genetically modified (GM) crops have generated a great deal of controversy. Since commercially introduced to farmers in 1996, the global area cultivated with GM crops has increased 94-fold. The rapid adoption of GM technology has had substantial socio-economic impacts which a vast amount of technical and non-technical literature has addressed in the last two decades. However, contradictory results between individual studies abound. Extensive and transparent reviews concerning this contentious and complex issue could help promote evidence-based dialogue among the diverse parties involved. Methods: This protocol specifies the methodology for identifying, evaluating, and mapping evidence related to the main review question: what are the socio-economic impacts of genetically modified crops worldwide? This question has been subdivided into the following topics: (a) farm-level impacts; (b) impacts of coexistence regulations; (c) impacts along the supply chain; (d) consumer-level impacts; (e) impacts on food security; and (f) environmental economic impacts. The search strategy includes the identification of primary studies from general scientific databases; global, regional, and national specialist databases; an on-line search engine; institutional websites; journal websites; subject experts/researchers; and serendipity. Searches will be conducted in six languages (Chinese, English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish). Identified studies will be screened for inclusion/exclusion criteria by a group of multi-language reviewers. Finally, pre-defined data from the studies will be extracted, mapped, and presented in a report. Potential research gaps will be identified and discussed, and the review process will be documented in an open-access database (i.e. CADIMA, http://www.cadima.info/).

Social Impacts of GM Crops in Agriculture: A Systematic Literature Review

“…It has recently been argued that the currently rather fragmented knowledge on the social impacts of GM crops probably contributes to the much polarised debate on GM crops [8,18]. Due to lack of a systematic, broad overview of existing knowledge on the social impacts of GM crops, it is difficult to draw conclusions about the full range and type of social impacts identified and how they materialise in different contexts of growing GM crops.…”

Online tools supporting the conduct and reporting of systematic reviews and systematic maps: a case study on CADIMA and review of existing tools

“…The project's working agenda included: (1) the conduct of a number of systematic reviews and maps for the purposes of increasing the transparency and traceability of information on potential risks and benefits associated with the deliberate release of genetically modified crops [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]; and, (2) the development of an open access online tool (CADIMA) to facilitate the conduct of systematic reviews and maps on agricultural and environmental questions. Due to the expertise available at the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE) and the overlap of topics covered by both institutions, a close collaboration between JKI and CEE was established to develop CADIMA.…”

Inclusive development and prioritization of review questions in a highly controversial field of regulatory science

“…SM [31] What is the impact of trade restrictions of GM products in different countries on the competitiveness of different partner countries and corresponding sectors in comparison to a situation where there are no restrictions on GM trade? Possible reasons for this participation pattern, as suggested by the authors, are: the high and still increasing number of stakeholder events on GMO issues; the relevance of evidence synthesis for many stakeholders is still not fully clear; the absence of resources to support participation of stakeholders; the lack of familiarity with evidence synthesis (procedure, strengths and weaknesses); the combination of health, environmental and socio-economic topics into the same consultation workshops made it difficult for some people to follow as some topics were outside of their area of expertise (in organisations like competent authorities, industry and research, health, environmental and socio-economic topics are typically covered by different persons); stakeholders felt overloaded with the number of tasks and documents presented to them.…”

“…Furthermore, GRACE developed general conclusions and recommendations on the use and value of evidence synthesis approaches in GMO impact assessment [22][23][24] which were also included in the scope of the consultations. By the time of the submission of this paper, 7 of the 14 review/map protocols [25][26][27][28][29][30][31] and the results of one systematic review [32] have been published as peer reviewed open-access papers and 10 review/map protocols and the published systematic review are available on the Open Access database CADIMA [33].…”