Environmental and regulatory aspects of using genetically-modified plants in the field

Abstract

The techniques of genetic engineering have advanced to the point where products from recombinant organisms will soon be available to consumers. Speaking specifically of plants, almost all agronomically important crops have been engineered in an effort to improve upon one or more characteristics (Gasser and Fraley, 1989). Crops that produce a better quality of food are more resistant toward pests and environmental stress, and that are tolerant toward environmentally innocuous herbicides are very close to commercial reality. Such products have the potential to bring significant benefits to food processors, consumers and agriculture. They will be more cost effective to produce and process, of higher nutritional quality, and enable farmers more flexibility in environmentally sound cultural practices. Looking further into the future, plants may be used to produce large quantities of therapeutically useful peptides and otherwise scarce chemotherapy agents like taxol at a lower cost.