Theme Overview: Genetically Engineered Crops and U.s. Agricultural Sustainability

Since the mid-1990s, genetically engineered (GE) crops have swept across the nation’s landscape to now cover approximately half of all cropland. While the United States is the undisputed leader in GE crops adoption and use, farmers in many other countries also are adopting them at increasing rates. Despite rapid adoption rates, GE crops have not been without controversy. Depending on the groups to which you listen, GE crops are either the boon or the bane of a more sustainable agriculture. However, those pro and con arguments are often couched in ideological positions and do not reflect the latest natural and social science research findings. This Choices theme aims to clarify the complex, also called wicked, issues surrounding the role of GE crops in fostering a more sustainable agriculture and to hopefully elevate the dialogue to a more constructive plane.