by C.S. Prakash

About the author: C.S. Prakash teaches plant molecular genetics and is director of the Center for Plant Biotechnology Research at Tuskegee University. He is a member of the USDA Advisory Committee on Agricultural Biotechnology. He is also the president of the AgBioWorld Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides information about and supports biotechnology in agriculture.

Bioengineered crops were grown on nearly 40 million hectares (100 million acres) in twelve countries last year—up from less than two million hectares when they were first introduced in 1996, making biotechnology the most rapidly adopted technology in the history of agriculture. But this phenomenal success has been a double-edged sword. Despite the certified safety of biotechnology-derived foods, opposition by environmental activists has undermined consumer confidence in the new gene technology. Food companies such as...