Foreword and acknowledgements

From their first commercialisation in the mid-1990s, genetically engineered crops (also known as “transgenic” or “genetically modified” plants) have been approved for commercial release in an increasing number of countries, for planting or for entering in the composition of foods and feeds, or use in industrial processing. Up to now, the large majority of these agricultural productions remain for soybean, maize, cotton and rapeseed (canola), as outlined in The Bioeconomy to 2030: Designing a Policy Agenda (OECD, 2009). Despite some differences in total estimates, all analyses and statistics concur in underlining the general increasing trend in volumes produced and traded, number of countries involved and growth potential.