Toward two decades of plant biotechnology: successes, failures, and prospects

The use of plant biotechnology in agriculture approaches the end of its second decade. While it is now a maturing industry in the Americas, Asia, and Australasia in particular, in some parts of the world, no more so than in Europe, it remains a highly controversial issue. European authorities have responded to the controversy by establishing a regulatory framework so impenetrable that development of the technology in Europe has effectively ground to a halt and the United Kingdom, for example, is no nearer to the commercial cultivation of genetically modified ( GM) crops than it was when the first GM varieties went on the market in the United States of America in the mid-1990s. This review covers the GM crop varieties and traits that have been launched in the last 18 years, including the failures as well as successes, and considers the prospects for the technology.