Not only are we eating genetically modified product, but we are probably wearing some GM cotton or may have been treated with a drug produced with the use of GM. The technology is here to stay and its uses are steadily multiplying.

Researchers are modifying potatoes to contain the right kinds of starches, even trees, to suit the paper industry; GM oilseed rape (canola) can make better detergents or lubricants. Sheep can be altered to grow more and better wool. Old flowers will get new colours or scents. Both plants and animals can be altered to produce pharmaceuticals.

And bio-fuel or bio-plastics, made from GM maize or sugar is under way.

The spread of non-food GM will be affected by the vagaries of public perception. We may be happy to fill up with GM-derived fuel, but remain uneasy about GM food. Applied to cotton, that argument has plainly carried little public weight as cottonseed oil is eaten, notably in margarine, but few people associate cotton with food.

Details bTang Slashdot The Economist.