Transgenic plants

Plants — and their descendants — engineered so that DNA from at least one unrelated organism is incorporated into their genomes: the familiar GM crops. Commercial traits include insect resistance, herbicide tolerance, and virus resistance, now grown on hundreds of millions of hectares. Each food crop undergoes safety assessment against its conventional counterpart — screening for new allergens, toxins, and compositional shifts — under frameworks such as the Codex guidelines. Labelling rules diverge worldwide, from mandatory disclosure (EU) to voluntary bioengineered labelling (US), reflecting different philosophies of consumer information.