What is Genetic Engineering and how far has it come?

Genetic engineering is the science of tinkering with the genetic makeup of an organism by adding or deleting specific genes. The products of genetic engineering, Genetically Modified (GM) organisms have new, useful traits such as fungal resistance for crop plants or the ability for microbes to produce antibiotics.

Even with the tide turning against GM crops, the odds look good for it's increasing integration with mainstream "traditional" agriculture. Back in 1990, it would have been impossible to find any GM crops in commercial cultivation anywhere. Yet by the close of 1999, approximately 40 million hectares (100 million acres) will be covered with them, an estimate (by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech applications) quoted in The Economist. Some GM crops, in particular a certain strain of herbicide-resistant soybean, have become so widespread that finding the unmodified variety has become difficult. Food manufacturers trying to avoid the GM variety previously relied on old stockpiles or countries like Brazil. But now even Brazil is joining the group of nations which has embraced GM strongly: America, Argentina, Australia, Canada, China and Mexico. (Today however, the amounts of GM crops being planted has waned slightly in the face of consumer pressure.)

In Europe however (which has always imported its soybeans), only Spain has significant commercial plantings of GM crops. Current legislature allows European nations to refuse GM crops already approved by the European Commission, upon finding new any new risk. Recently, France, Austria and Luxembourg used this provision to reject several strains of GM maize and oilseed rape. On the whole, although nine varieties of modified crops have been approved for planting in the EU since 1994, the ensuing outcry has meant that no new strains have been added in over two years.

Next: What do consumers think?