Beyond reducing time to market, modern plant engineering efforts have shifted from yield per plant—a hallmark of the Green Revolution—to yield per acre. Slotkin cites corn: “By removing what’s called shade avoidance and increasing the leaf angle, you can seed at a denser rate.” Today, nearly 95% of all corn and soybeans grown in the US are genetically engineered to improve yield per acre, chiefly through herbicide- and insect-tolerant traits.
Plant scientists have also fortified staple crops with essential nutrients. Golden rice, for example, uses corn genes to produce beta-carotene, the precursor to vitamin A. Purple tomatoes have been genetically modified with snapdragon DNA to contain high levels of anthocyanins, the antioxidants found in blueberries and blackberries. Some plant engineers favor designer species, like non-browning Arctic apples and sweet Pinkglow pineapples.
Despite such advances, a 2020 poll by the Pew Research Center found that only 27% of Americans trust genetically engineered crops, even though a comprehensive 2016 report from the National Academies of Science found no evidence that genetically engineered food is less safe than conventional. But as climate change ratchets up its toll on agricultural yield and the global population continues to grow, genetically engineered crops with climate-friendly features—such as the ability to thrive in droughts or floods, generate their own fertilizer, and optimize land use—will likely become less the exception than the norm.
