Research on GM plants has been going on in developed countries. There is some concern that new advances may be skewed to the interests of rich countries.

The word Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) raises not just an eyebrow, but also a lot of debate in many conferences especially in India. BT cotton has been beaten to death by media for a long time and is particularly rife with controversy. There is concern and controversy around GM plants, but we need to look beyond the controversy and analyze the facts. Most of the concerns and controversy stems from human and environmental safety, labeling and consumer choice, intellectual property rights, ethics, food security, poverty reduction, and environmental conservation. However, there are multiple non-scientific fears where a person because of ignorance, political and religious issues also raises a lot of concern.

Just as the food requirements of today's population of nearly 6 billion people could not have been met by the technologies of the 1940s, we cannot assume that current practices will feed the population of 8 billion expected by 2020. New approaches are needed in addition to the continued improvement of existing methods of crop and animal husbandry and food processing. We need to visualize the needs of the future and use technology and innovation to create a better world.

The use of GMOs in food offers benefits in agricultural practices, food quality, nutrition and health. The advent of genetic modification over the last two decades has enabled plant breeders to develop new varieties of crops at a faster rate than was possible using traditional methods, with huge potential for further beneficial developments. New technologies and innovative approaches by researchers and farmers have helped bring down substantial amount of time taken to develop GM plants.

Genetically Modified Foods, Research, GM plants, developed countries, interests, countries, sectors, controversy, human and environmental safety, labeling and consumer choice, intellectual property rights, ethics, food security, poverty reduction, and environmental conservation, non-scientific fears, ignorance, political, GM plants, public health sector, food production systems.