Climate change, rising food prices and a growing world
population mean that GM crops are in the spotlight like never
before, but few technologies are more controversial. Genetically
modified (GM) crops are varieties that scientists have developed
by altering the structure of their genetic material (DNA) to
make them exhibit specific new traits. They were first grown
commercially in 1996 and since then their use has grown almost
100-fold. By 2010, they were being grown on nearly 150 million
hectares of land in 29 countries. GM crops include both food and
non-food crops (such as cotton). They have proven controversial
for a number of reasons, and both public debate and media
coverage about them has tended to be highly polarised. The
advantage of genetic modification is that new traits can be
introduced into crops far faster and with more precision than by
traditional plant breeding techniques. To achieve this,
scientists either remove or deactivate genes from a crop’s
existing DNA, or insert new genes into the