Genetically modified crops: promise and reality

Last May, 30 years after the first successful introduction of a foreign gene into a plant. Therefore, the journal Nature published a special edition of 14 articles that show the historical context and the current situation of genetically modified crops (GM), and a balance of the positive and negative aspects.

Last May, 30 years after the first successful introduction of a foreign gene into a plant. Therefore, the journal Nature published a special edition of 14 articles that show the historical context and the current situation of genetically modified crops (GM), and a balance of the positive and negative aspects.

Since 1996, when the first GM plants were planted, the cultivated area has increased, reaching 170 million hectares in 2012. Thus, GM plants have become the fastest-adopting technology in the recent history of agriculture. Transgenic plants are currently grown in 28 countries. Most of the planted area, a total of 152 million hectares, is concentrated in five nations: the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Canada and India.

Some of the GM crops planted around the world are soy, cotton, corn, canola, squash, papaya, alfalfa, sugar beet, tomato, poplar (tree), sweet pepper and potato.