Scientists call for more access to biotech crop data

This map shows the 2005 distribution of agricultural fields of any crop in Arizona counties (delimited with thick lines) and townships (delimited with thin lines). The townships average 85.2 square kilometers (32.9 square miles) in size. For the 261 townships with at least one agricultural field, the average number of fields per township was 96. Twenty-five of those townships had between one and five fields (green); the other 236 townships had between six and 356 fields (blue). Most land grants (pink) and Indian lands (yellow) are not divided into townships. Mapping the distribution of genetically engineered crops by county, or in many cases by townships with more than five fields, would preserve farmers' privacy. Mapped data are from the Arizona Geographic Information Council and the Arizona Cotton Research and Protection Council. Credit: Cartography by C. Ellers-Kirk, The University of Arizona, 2008