Economic and environmental impacts of production intensification in agriculture: comparing transgenic, conventional, and agroecological maize crops

Contemporary society is characterized by faith in the technological paradigm as a solution to economic, social, and environmental challenges. This has led to a lack of critical analysis toward the contradictions inherent to production systems. In the primary sector, this phenomenon is expressed by the creation of a productivist ideology in which "producing more is better." The negative aspects of the production techniques are hidden or classified as necessary evils to be solved with more technology. A case study compared three corn production systems on family farming: a) organic agroecological maize with open-pollinated variety (OAM), b) conventional hybrid maize (CHM), and c) transgenic hybrid maize (THM). The CHM and THM had greater production costs and productivity driven primarily by high dosages of fertilizer and the price of GM seeds. The high doses of nitrogenous fertilizer contaminate water and food with nitrates and nitrites. Economic viability of CHM and THM depends on large-scale production and public subsidies to purchase inputs and outsource risks through crop insurance. This article demonstrates that increasing agricultural productivity through the intensive use of inputs contrasts with the diminishing return on invested capital, and increases the environmental impacts without changing the economic performance of the activity.