Biotechnology Provides New Tools for Plant Breeding

Biotechnology in its broadest sense refers to the use of living organisms or their components to provide useful products. This definition can include activities as diverse as making wine, beer, or bread; composting organic materials; releasing parasitic wasps to control insect pests; breeding plants or animals; and producing crops and livestock. In fact, agriculture itself can be considered to be the original biological technology. With increasing knowledge of genetics, plant breeders in this century have accelerated the improvement of crops for enhanced yield and quality. New recombinant DNA techniques now allow the specific identification, isolation, and alteration of genes and their reintroduction into living organisms to produce transgenic varieties. These new techniques are supplementing and extending traditional breeding methods to enhance the production of food, fiber, and other agricultural products. Farmers in the United States, Canada, Argentina, and other countries have rapidly adopted transgenic crop varieties. Between 1996 and 2001, the global production of transgenic soybean, cotton, corn, and canola varieties increased from essentially none to over 125 million acres (50 million hectares).