genetic modification
...n wildlife, and increasing control of agriculture by biotechnology corporations.The technology to genetically engineer crop plants has developed rapidly over the past 10 years. Techniques for transferring foreign genes to individual plant cells, and the subsequent regeneration of these cells into complete plants, have been reported in most major crop plants. Considerable work is now being done on the transfer of genes expected to confer benefit to the agricultural industry, food industry and consumers. Food products derived from genetically engineered crop plants, with improved quality attributes or resistance to herbicides, insect pests and viral diseases, have already reached the market place in North America, China, Europe, Japan, and Australia. Examples include: tomatoes that withstand longer postharvest storage, cotton and maize with resistance to insect pests, squash and potatoes with virus resistance, as well as soybean and oilseed rape with herbicide resistance. Many more genetically engineered crop cultivars are either in the final phase of development or currently awaiting regulatory approval for release, and are expected to be marketed in the near future Genetic engineering has several advantages over other breeding methods for crop improvement including: • the broadening of the germplasm base from which new characters can be transferred; • the...