In the mid-1990s plant biotechnology burst onto the scene in world agriculture, beginning a second ‘green revolution’ and precipitating one of the great public debates of our time. Approximately a decade later, this book describes the impact of genetically modified (GM) crops on world agriculture, recent advances in the technology and the areas of research from which the next generation of GM crops is likely to emerge, as well as addresses the issues of safety and regulation that have dogged the technology, particularly in Europe. This chapter defines exactly what GM crops are (in other words, what distinguishes them from other crops) and describes the GM crops that.
