160M hectares of biotech crops now planted in EU: report

In Belgium, the ISAAA released a report on the use of biotech crops, stating that approximately 160 million hectares of biotech/GMO crops were planted.  According to the EurActive article, this represents an 8% increase, and the work of 16.7 million farmers spread over 29 countries.

ISAAA also reported a more than four-fold increase by farmers in the Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Spain as their acreage increased from 23,297 ha of maize in 2010, to 114,490 in 2011.  The U.S. still leads the world with 69 million hectares planted in 2011.