Agricultural biotechnology is an advanced technology that allows plant breeders to make precise genetic changes to impart beneficial traits to the crop plants we rely on for food and fiber. For centuries farmers and plant breeders have labored to improve crop plants. Traditional breeding methods include selecting and sowing the seeds from the strongest, most desirable plants to produce the next generation of crops.

Biotechnology is the application of scientific information and methods to biological problems such as in agriculture and medicine. It includes moving traits or characteristics from one organism to another, to improve or create new industrial, medical and agricultural products.

More information on Biotechnology and U.S. trade is available at http://www.fas.usda.gov/itp/biotech/index.html.

Yes. The U.S. regulatory system, which enjoys a high degree of public confidence, employs rigorous scientific reviews within a transparent decision-making framework open to public participation. This regulatory approach provides full access to documents on which decisions are based and is carried out completely in the public eye as required by law. The science-based U.S. regulatory system has helped ensure that biotechnology products are safe for producers, consumers, and the environment.

I don't believe any one thing is a 'cure'. A multi-faceted approach tuned to the needs of the patient is needed. We aren't machines you know. We are very complex organic/spiritual/mental human systems.

The first effort at marketing a crop food modified through biotechnology occurred in the 1989, when Calgene Corporation sought approval for its Flavr Savr tomato, engineered to provide extended shelf life. Since then, there have been a number of crops developed offering a wide variety of enhanced traits. Crops designed to resist insect and viral pest or tolerate broad-spectrum herbicides account for most of the biotechnology crops available commercially.

Yes. Using biotechnology, developments in the field of aquaculture will allow a high-quality source of food to be brought to market more quickly, reduce the price to consumers, and eliminate the demand to overfish wild stocks. For example, AquaAdvantage® salmon, developed by Aqua Bounty Farms, can grow from egg to market size (6 to 10 pounds) in 12 to 18 months. Fish produced using conventional fish-breeding techniques normally require two to three years.

All new crop varieties that meet the criteria of the federal Plant Variety Protection Act-whether produced by conventional means or biotechnology-are eligible for intellectual property rights protection. To receive protection, the new variety must be distinct from other varieties and genetically uniform and stable through successive generations. The length of protection is 20 years for most crop plants.

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In recent years, it has become possible to introduce changes to the DNA of living organisms in a precise and controlled manner in the laboratory, using recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology. This is often referred to as modern biotechnology, genetic modification, or genetic engineering. In brief, the DNA encoding a specific property is isolated from one organism, purified, and introduced to the same, or a second, organism.

No. The FDA applies the same labeling standards to foods produced through biotechnology that are applied to all foods produced using traditional methods. Federal law requires labeling of a new food to inform consumers when there are significant changes in nutrition, safety or usage, or if the common name of the food no longer applies. The FDA's evaluation of a biotechnology food focuses on its characteristics, not the method used to develop it.

Developers of foods enhanced through biotechnology are mindful of the possibility, albeit unlikely, of introducing an allergen into that food. FDA regulations require companies that use genes from a known allergenic source to assume that they will produce an allergen and to perform allergenicity tests on the food product. Approximately 90 percent of food-related allergies are linked to proteins found in tree nuts, peanuts, soybeans, milk, eggs, fish, crustaceans, and wheat.

Yes. Farmers have embraced crops enhanced through biotechnology because they provide value and solve real, sometimes previously intractable, problems. U.S. farmers, in particular, have taken advantage of this new technology. USDA has estimated that in 2004, 45 percent of the corn (36.4 million acres), 76 percent of the cotton (10.4 million acres), and 85 percent of the soybeans (63.5 million acres) planted were biotech varieties.

While the science has repeatedly demonstrated that foods produced through biotechnology are as safe as conventional foods, approval of these foods in some overseas markets has been slow in coming. Despite their growing acceptance and history of safe use in the United States, certain countries-including the United Kingdom, France and other members of the European Union-have not yet approved these crops to be planted or purchased from another country.