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Soy production has rapidly expanded in Latin America in the last two decades. From 1990 to 2007, soy production increased from 16 to 61 million tonnes in Brazil and from 12 to 47 million tonnes in Argentina. Also Paraguay and Bolivia have started large-scale soy production. Soy in Latin America is primarily grown for export, with China and the EU being the worlds’ largest importers of soy products. Between 1997 and 2007, the share of genetically modified (GM) soy in the total soy production increased from 23% to 95% in Argentina and from 2% to about 66% in Brazil. The only GM soy currently commercially grown in Latin America is soy with a trait leading to tolerance to the herbicide glyphosate. This GM soy line is also known as Roundup Ready® or RR soy.

The use of RR soy has raised much discussion in debates about the socio-economic and environmental consequences of soy production. Many claims on RR soy have been made by various stakeholders, but they often lack science based evidence. To support stakeholders to engage in effective debates on GM soy, an overview of the scientific literature about the agro-ecological sustainability of the cultivation of GM soy in Brazil and Argentina is provided in this report. While socio-economic and institutional matters are evidently of great importance, they have not been within the scope of this study. In addition, almost all our data relate to the cultivation of RR soy. As all new GM events that will be commercially released in Latin America in the near future also relate to the use of broad-spectrum herbicides, the principles, practices and our findings related to RR soy may apply to a large extent …