tic modifications made to food crops have mainly affected the plants' tolerance to herbicides and insect pests in crops grown in the developed world. Such crops may allow lower levels of agrochemical use and more efficient farm management. However, the scope for improvements offered by genetic modification in future is much wider and consumer benefits more evident. They include increased food micronutrient levels, removal of food allergens and the production of vaccines. More important is the expansion of the use of GM crops outside the developed world. Globally, the ability to engineer resistance to salty soil and in the longer term to modify cereal crops to use atmospheric nitrogen could greatly enhance the diet of the world's poorest citizens. The longer-term perspective suggests that industrial fuels and especially fuel for electricity generation could increasingly be based on GM plants rather than fossil fuels, and that construction materials could soon be grown in a tailor-made fashion. Also, it is of great importance that consumer's have the choice to avoid GM products if they wish, whatever their reasons may be. The prospect of broad patents on basic GM technologies also presents particular and potentially serious difficulties for developing countries. The possibility that GM crops could make a substantial contribution to providing sufficient food for an expanding world is, on its own, a solid reason for engaging in the research that underlies their development. Commercial incentives require that private companies that engage in the research can patent commercially useful results. But will such companies be willing in the future to grant licenses on favorable terms for commercial research intended to benefit developing countries? In the developed world the fact that the first GM foods have had no or little obvious benefits for consumers has contributed to the perception that they are unnecessary. Genetic modification ...
