Transgenic crops are currently being cultivated on a commercial scale in many countries. The area devoted to transgenic pest resistant varieties worldwide reached 13 million hectares in 2001. These varieties offer valuable benefits but also pose potential risks. Assessments of their impact on the environment are conducted before they are approved for commercial use, as required by the regulator...

What is a GMO? A genetically modified organism, or GMO is the term commonly used for crops that have been genetically engineered (GE) to produce some desired trait. The first GE crops were tobacco plants modified in 1986 to be resistant to direct application of herbicides. The following year, tobacco plants were engineered to resist insects. There followed a host of field trials to also develop...

For arable stockless farming systems, the integration of catch crops (CC) during fallow period might be a key for closing nitrogen (N) cycle, reducing N leaching and increasing transfer to subsequent crop. However, despite considerable research efforts, fate in such integrated systems remains unclear. To address this, two-year field experiment was carried out northern Germany with different CC,...

Background: Genetically engineered, herbicide-resistant and insect-resistant crops have been remarkable commercial successes in the United States. Few independent studies have calculated their impacts on pesticide use per hectare or overall pesticide use, or taken into account the impact of rapidly spreading glyphosate-resistant weeds. A model was developed to quantify by crop and year the impa...

Imidazolinone herbicides, which include imazapyr, imazapic, imazethapyr, imazamox, imazamethabenz and imazaquin, control weeds by inhibiting the enzyme acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS), also called acetolactate synthase (ALS). AHAS is a critical enzyme for the biosynthesis of branched-chain amino acids in plants. Several variant AHAS genes conferring imidazolinone tolerance were discovered in p...

The coexistence of genetically modified (GM) crops and non-GM crops is a myth because the movement of transgenes beyond their intended destinations is a certainty, and this leads to genetic contamination of organic farms and other systems. It is unlikely that transgenes can be retracted once they have escaped, thus the damage to the purity of non-GM seeds is permanent. The dominant GM crops hav...

Glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine]-resistant crops (GRCs), canola (Brassica napus L.), cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), maize (Zea mays L.), and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] have been commercialized and grown extensively in the Western Hemisphere and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere. Glyphosate-resistant cotton and soybean have become dominant in those countries where their planting is p...