摘要：Since they were first commercially grown in the mid-1990s, geneti-cally engineered (GE) crops have expanded across the globe, offering farmers the advantages of genetically enhanced resistance to drought, her-bicides, and insects. According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), a crop biotechnology advocacy organization, farmers in 29 countries grew nearly 400 million acres of commercial GE crops in 2011, an 8% increase from the previous year.1An est imated 60–70% of processed foods in t he United States cont ain GE ingredients,2and GE corn and soy-beans make up t he majority of t he U.S. crop.3But wh ile GE crop acreage has been stead ily increasing, so have concerns in some quarters that producing and eating GE foods may pose unexpected environmental and healt h hazards. In the absence of strong healt h and safety data, many national govern-ments across the world have taken steps to mini-mize the presence of GE food within their borders. In Eu rope, six nations (Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, and Lu xembourg) have enacted bans on the cultivation and import of GE products,4and nearly 50 nations worldwide require that all GE foods be labeled as such
