title: Katsuki Bakugo

text: Katsuki has consistently ranked first in the series' popularity polls, beating out other popular characters such as Izuku Midoriya and Shoto Todoroki. In Tumblr's top anime and manga characters of 2020, Katsuki ranked second, behind only Izuku.


title: Katsuki Bakugo

text: Alex Osborn from "IGN" praised the character and his development throughout the series. Daniel Kurland from "Den of Geek" also praised the character; he also praised Chapin's English performance of the character. Sam Leach from Anime News Network praised the character as amazing; he also praised Okamoto's voice performance as the character. The reviewer for Anime UK News also offered praise for the character. The columnists for Manga News had similar feelings, praising the character and his development. Steven Blackburn from "Screen Rant" praised Katsuki's development throughout the series, though questioned some of the decisions made by the character in the later parts of the series. Chelsey Adams from "Comic Book Resources" felt that Katsuki became more likeable as the series progressed. Briana Lawrence from "The Mary Sue" praised Katsuki's character development and personality, calling the character relatable.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Forest Hills is a mostly residential neighborhood in the central portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is adjacent to Corona to the north, Rego Park and Glendale to the west, Forest Park to the south, Kew Gardens to the southeast, and Flushing Meadows–Corona Park to the east.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: The area was originally referred to as "Whitepot". The current name comes from the Cord Meyer Development Company, which bought in central Queens in 1906 and renamed it after Forest Park. Further development came in the 1920s and 1930s with the widening of Queens Boulevard through the neighborhood, as well as the opening of the New York City Subway's Queens Boulevard Line. Forest Hills has a longstanding association with tennis: the Forest Hills Stadium hosted the U.S. Open until 1978 and the West Side Tennis Club offers grass courts for its members. The area's main commercial street, Austin Street, contains many restaurants and chain stores.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Forest Hills is located in Queens Community District 6 and its ZIP Code is 11375. It is patrolled by the New York City Police Department's 112th Precinct. Politically, Forest Hills is represented by the New York City Council's 29th District.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: The development of adjacent Forest Park, a park on the southern end of Forest Hills, began in 1895. Starting in 1896, the landscape architecture firm of Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot was contracted to provide a plan for the park.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: In 1906, the Cord Meyer Development Company, headed by Brooklyn attorney Cord Meyer, bought abutting land made up of six farms (those of Ascan Bakus, Casper Joost-Springsteen, Horatio N. Squire, Abram V. S. Lott, Sarah V. Bolmer, and James Van Siclen). The company then renamed the aggregate "Forest Hills", after Forest Park. Single-family homes, designed by architects such as Robert Tappan and William Patterson, were constructed on these 600 acres. The roads of Forest Hills were laid out by 1910. The present-day Ascan Avenue in Forest Hills is named after Ascan Bakus.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Margaret Sage, the founder of the Russell Sage Foundation, bought of land from the Cord Meyer Development Company in 1908. This land was to be used for "Forest Hills Gardens", a development at the southern side of Forest Hills. Grosvenor Atterbury, a renowned architect, was given the commission to design Forest Hills Gardens. The neighborhood was planned on the model of the garden communities of England, with its own inn, garage, and post office. It also included narrow, winding roads to limit through traffic. As a result, there are many Tudor-style homes in Forest Hills. The more sprawling ones are located in Forest Hills Gardens, but most are located in the section loosely bounded by 68th Avenue on the north; 72nd Road on the south; 108th Street on the west; and Grand Central Parkway on the east. The construction of this area used a prefabricated building technique. Each house was built from approximately 170 standardized precast concrete panels, fabricated off-site and positioned by crane. The houses were mostly constructed between 1910 and 1917.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: The Long Island Rail Road opened a station in Forest Hills in 1911, and the Queens Boulevard trolley line opened two years later. The LIRR station was built with a brick courtyard, a clock tower, and arch-filled underpasses, fitting in with the Forest Hills Gardens section of the neighborhood. Since the railroad and trolley both connected to Manhattan, the presence of these two transportation options spurred development in Forest Hills.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: In 1914, the West Side Tennis Club moved from Manhattan to Forest Hills Gardens. They constructed the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, a stadium with approximately 13,000 seats, in 1923. The U.S. Open and its predecessor national championships were held there until 1978, making Forest Hills synonymous with tennis for generations. Forest Hills also had a golfing presence for a short time. The Queens Valley Golf Club started constructing a golf course in the neighborhood in 1922 and it was open by 1924. However, the club was closed in 1938 so that developers could build housing atop the site of the course.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Queens Boulevard was widened in the 1920s. Planning for a Queens Boulevard subway line started around this time. There were proposals for two stations in Forest Hills: an express station serving all trains on 71st Avenue, and a local station at 75th Avenue. During the late 1920s, in anticipation of the arrival of the subway, land was bought by developers and was built up. Zoning laws were changed to allow fifteen-story apartment buildings to be built, and made the neighborhood of Forest Hills a more desirable place to live, especially as it was an express stop. Queens Borough President George Harvey predicted that the introduction of the subway to Forest Hills would turn Queens Boulevard into the "Park Avenue of Queens." Excavation for the line started in 1931, and the two subway stops in Forest Hills opened in 1936 along with six other stations on the Queens Boulevard line.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: The population nearly doubled in the late 1920s, going from 9,500 residents in 1927 to 18,207 residents three years later. By 1940, after the subway opened, the population had increased to 32,500 residents. By this time, development had largely stopped due to World War II, and about 25 empty lots in Forest Hills Gardens were developed after the war. At the same time, the single-family houses in Forest Hills were being razed to create new apartment buildings. The land in Forest Hills Gardens was fully developed by the 1960s, but there would still be empty lots in Forest Hills itself until the mid-1990s.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: In 1972, residents protested against Forest Hills Houses, a proposed public housing development with three 24-story buildings at 62nd Drive and 108th Street. It was part of Mayor John Lindsay "scatter-site" plan to construct public housing in neighborhoods that had none (as opposed to concentrating public housing in poor neighborhoods). White middle-class residents believed that the public housing would depreciate the community's quality of life because poor residents would move into the housing. Advocates for the project accused residents of racism, since the proposed development's residents would be mostly people of minority races. Lindsay garnered significant opposition due to the controversy surrounding Forest Hills Houses. Mario Cuomo, a lawyer and the future Governor of New York, was assigned to mediate the dispute and succeeded in halving the size of the project. The New York City Housing Authority ultimately implemented a rigorous screening process for prospective residents of Forest Hills Houses, with quotas for elderly and poorer tenants.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: During the 1970s and 1980s, the neighborhood became more racially diverse. Discriminatory covenants for prospective Forest Hills Gardens residents were lifted, and immigrants from Iran, India, Israel, and the Soviet Union started residing in Forest Hills.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of Forest Hills was 86,364, an increase of 1,318 (1.5%) from the 85,046 counted in 2000. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density of .


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 58.3% (48,822) White, 2.5% (2,086) African American, 0.1% (63) Native American, 24.2% (20,233) Asian, 0.0% (22) Pacific Islander, 0.4% (373) from other races, and 2.1% (1,719) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 12.4% (10,410) of the population.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: The entirety of Community Board 6, which comprises Forest Hills and Rego Park, had 115,119 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 85.4 years. This is higher than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are middle-aged and elderly adults: 31% are between the ages of 25–44, 28% between 45–64, and 19% over 64. The ratio of young and college-aged residents was lower, at 16% and 5% respectively.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: As of 2017, the median household income in Community Board 4 was $75,447. In 2018, an estimated 26% of Forest Hills and Rego Park residents lived in poverty, compared to 19% in all of Queens and 20% in all of New York City. One in seventeen residents (6%) was unemployed, compared to 8% in Queens and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 50% in Forest Hills and Rego Park, lower than the boroughwide and citywide rates of 53% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, , Forest Hills and Rego Park is considered to be high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: The southern part of Forest Hills contains a particularly diverse mixture of upscale housing, ranging from single-family houses, attached townhouses, and both low-rise and high-rise apartment buildings. South of the Long Island Rail Road, the Forest Hills Gardens area is a private community that features some of the most expensive residential properties in Queens County. Until the 1970s, it was subject to restrictive covenants which, while containing no explicit economic, social or racial restrictions, effectively excluded "working-class people", as noted by Eric P. Nash in his 2002 "New York Times" book review of "A Modern Arcadia". Forest Hills Gardens was named "Best Community" in 2007 by "Cottage Living" magazine. The adjacent Van Court community also contains a number of detached single-family homes. There are also attached townhouses near the Westside Tennis Center and detached frame houses near Metropolitan Avenue.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: The north side of Forest Hills is home to the Cord Meyer community, which contains detached single-family homes. Teardowns and their replacement with larger single family residences has had a significant impact on the architectural integrity of the area. However, the Bukharian Jewish community, whose members have settled in the area in large numbers since the late 1990s, advocating the changes say the bigger homes are needed for their large extended families.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: On the northwestern edge of Forest Hills, on 62nd Drive and 108th Street immediately adjacent to the Long Island Expressway, is the Forest Hills Co-op Houses, a New York City Housing Authority low-income housing project. Its construction provoked controversy among the residents in the more prestigious areas of Forest Hills when it was constructed in the early 1970s.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: The southeastern portion of Forest Hills contains Forest Hills South, a complex of 7 Georgian apartment buildings centered around a private English garden, which was formerly a mapped portion of 113th Street prior to the complex's construction in 1939. This enclave was designed by Philip Birnbaum.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Philip Birnbaum and Alfred Kaskel also designed and constructed numerous apartment buildings scattered throughout Forest Hills. These include the Grover Cleveland, the Van Buren Apartments, the Thomas Jefferson, the Maplewood, the Richard Apartments, the Stephen Apartments, the James Madison, the Cedar Apartments, the Howard Apartments, the James Monroe, the Nathan Hale, the St. Regis, the Roanoke, and the Kennedy House. Birnbaum and Kaskel's buildings largely remain standing, and are distinguished by their spacious lobbies, interior courtyards with fountains, curved brick corner terraces, and sunlit exposures. Other notable high-rise apartment buildings include the Continental (on 108th Street), the Pinnacle, Parker Towers, the Windsor and a 17-story luxury condo building completed in 2014, the Aston.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Forest Hills was once the home of the U.S. Open tennis tournament. The event was held at the West Side Tennis Club before it moved to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Park, about away. When the Open was played at the tennis stadium, the tournament was commonly referred to merely as "Forest Hills", just as All-England Lawn Tennis Association Championships are referred to simply as Wimbledon. In the 2001 motion picture, "The Royal Tenenbaums", Luke Wilson's character plays a tennis match at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills. A pivotal scene in Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 film "Strangers on a Train", in which the main character (played by Farley Granger) is a professional tennis player, features a lengthy championship game at the Club, with distinctive shots of the surrounding community. The Tennis Stadium, which hosted numerous music concerts including The Beatles after the U.S. Open departed for Flushing Meadows, resumed hosting music concerts during the summer of 2013 when the British rock band Mumford & Sons played there to an overflowing crowd. Stadium officials have said they will now host as many as six music or cultural events at the Stadium each season.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Austin Street is a busy, modern street with shops, cafes, restaurants, and other stores that acts as the center of Forest Hills. It has become a place people visit from other neighborhoods because of its charm.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Two monuments are erected in Forest Hills Gardens: a tribute to the victims of World War I, the "Great War"; and the mast of the "Columbia", the winner of the America's Cup yacht races in both 1899 and 1901.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: The Church-in-the-Gardens, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, and United States Post Office are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Forest Hills and Rego Park are patrolled by the 112th Precinct of the NYPD, located at 68-40 Austin Street. The 112th Precinct ranked 6th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. The area's low crime rate is attributed to its seclusion and reputation as a "suburb within the city". , with a non-fatal assault rate of 14 per 100,000 people, Forest Hills and Rego Park's rate of violent crimes per capita is less than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 102 per 100,000 people is lower than that of the city as a whole.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: The 112th Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 91.5% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct reported 0 murders, 18 rapes, 41 robberies, 53 felony assaults, 69 burglaries, 403 grand larcenies, and 37 grand larcenies auto in 2018.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Forest Hills contains a New York City Fire Department (FDNY) fire station, Engine Co. 305/Ladder Co. 151, at 111-02 Queens Boulevard.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: , preterm births and births to teenage mothers are less common in Forest Hills and Rego Park than in other places citywide. In Forest Hills and Rego Park, there were 66 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 4.6 births to teenage mothers per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide). Forest Hills and Rego Park have a low population of residents who are uninsured. In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 11%, slightly lower than the citywide rate of 12%.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Forest Hills and Rego Park is , equal to the city average. Ten percent of Forest Hills and Rego Park residents are smokers, which is lower than the city average of 14% of residents being smokers. In Forest Hills and Rego Park, 19% of residents are obese, 7% are diabetic, and 20% have high blood pressure—compared to the citywide averages of 20%, 14%, and 24% respectively. In addition, 11% of children are obese, compared to the citywide average of 20%.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Ninety-three percent of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day, which is higher than the city's average of 87%. In 2018, 82% of residents described their health as "good", "very good", or "excellent", higher than the city's average of 78%. For every supermarket in Forest Hills and Rego Park, there are 5 bodegas.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Forest Hills is covered by ZIP Code 11375. The United States Post Office operates the Forest Hills Station at 106-28 Queens Boulevard and the Parkside Station at 10119 Metropolitan Avenue.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Forest Hills and Rego Park generally have a higher percentage of college-educated residents than the rest of the city . The majority of residents (62%) have a college education or higher, while 8% have less than a high school education and 30% are high school graduates or have some college education. By contrast, 39% of Queens residents and 43% of city residents have a college education or higher. The percentage of Forest Hills and Rego Park students excelling in math rose from 42% in 2000 to 61% in 2011, and reading achievement rose from 48% to 49% during the same time period.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Forest Hills and Rego Park's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is less than the rest of New York City. In Forest Hills and Rego Park, 10% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days per school year, lower than the citywide average of 20%. Additionally, 91% of high school students in Forest Hills and Rego Park graduate on time, more than the citywide average of 75%.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Forest Hills contains the following public elementary schools which serve grades PK–5 unless otherwise indicated:


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: There are no zoned high schools in New York City. The following high schools in Forest Hills serve grades 9–12:


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Private schools in Forest Hills include two Catholic schools (Our Lady of Mercy and Our Lady Queen of Martyrs) and The Kew-Forest School, an independent school. Also located in Forest Hills is Yeshiva Gedolah Lubavitch, an ultra orthodox Chabad high school and branch of Tomchei Temimim.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Bramson ORT College was an undergraduate college operated by the American branch of the Jewish charity World ORT. Its main campus was in Forest Hills, with a satellite campus in Brooklyn. It closed in February 2017 after failing to meet standards set by the New York State Education Department Board of Regents and losing its accreditation. Touro College/NYSCAS has a branch location in Forest Hills. Plaza College, a small regionally-accredited college offering associates and bachelors degrees, is also located in Forest Hills.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: The Queens Public Library operates two branches in Forest Hills. The Forest Hills branch is located at 108-19 71st Avenue, while the North Forest Park branch is located at 98-27 Metropolitan Avenue.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: The neighborhood also has two Long Island Rail Road commuter rail stations: the Forest Hills station and the Kew Gardens station.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: The main thoroughfare is Queens Boulevard. The street's width and complexity have led to a large number of pedestrian deaths, earning it the moniker "Boulevard of Death". Metropolitan Avenue is known for its antique shops. The commercial heart of Forest Hills is a mile-long stretch of Austin Street between Yellowstone Boulevard and Ascan Avenue: the latter thoroughfare was named in 1909 by developer Frederick Backus for his own father, Ascan Backus, II.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Forest Hills is bordered by two of the largest parks in Queens managed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation: the Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, which is the site of two World's Fairs (in 1939 and 1964) and the iconic Unisphere; as well as the Forest Park. Within Forest Hills, parks and playgrounds include the Yellowstone Municipal Park – Katzman Playground (located on Yellowstone Boulevard, between 68th Avenue and 68th Road); the Annadale Playground (located on Yellowstone Boulevard, between 64th Road and 65th Avenue); the Willow Lake Playground (located off the Grand Central Parkway, between 71st and 72nd Avenues); the Ehrenreich-Austin Playground (located on Austin Street, between 76th Avenue and 76th Drive); and the Russell Sage Playground (located on 68th Avenue, between Booth and Austin Streets).


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Access to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is restricted due to the fact that the Grand Central Parkway bisects the neighborhood and the park proper. Pedestrian access exists over the Grand Central Parkway at the Horace Harding Expressway, 64th Avenue, Jewel Avenue, and 72nd Road. A former entrance at 78th Avenue, leading to Willow Lake and providing pedestrian access to Kew Gardens Hills has been shuttered since 2001.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Forest Hills was featured as the home setting for the comic book superhero Spider-Man, where under the alias Peter Parker he grew up at 20 Ingram Street (). In the comics the home was depicted as a modest, two-story boarding house run by his Aunt May.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: The Ramones originated in Forest Hills. The band was recognized with the designation in 2017 of Ramones Way at 67th Avenue and 110th Street, in front of Forest Hills High School.


title: Forest Hills, Queens

text: Simon and Garfunkel both graduated from Forest Hills High School in 1958. The duo performed at Forest Hills Stadium in 1966, 1967, 1968, and two nights in 1970. Paul Simon returned once again to Forest Hills Stadium in 2016 during his Homeward Bound farewell tour.


title: Primus inter pares

text: Primus inter pares is a Latin phrase meaning first among equals. It is typically used as an honorary title for someone who is formally equal to other members of their group but is accorded unofficial respect, traditionally owing to their seniority in office.


title: Primus inter pares

text: Historically, the "princeps senatus" of the Roman Senate was such a figure and initially bore only the distinction that he was allowed to speak first during debate. Also, Constantine the Great was given the role of "primus inter pares". However, the term is also often used ironically or self-deprecatingly by leaders with much higher status as a form of respect, camaraderie or propaganda. After the fall of the Republic, Roman emperors initially referred to themselves only as "princeps" despite having enormous power.


title: Primus inter pares

text: Various modern figures such as the chair of the United States Federal Reserve System, the prime minister of parliamentary countries, the President of Switzerland, the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of the Philippines, the Archbishop of Canterbury of the Anglican Communion and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople of the Eastern Orthodox Church fall under both senses: bearing higher status and various additional powers while remaining still merely equal to their peers in important senses.


title: Primus inter pares

text: In the People's Republic of China, which was placed under the collective leadership of the Politburo Standing Committee following the death of Chairman Mao Zedong, the term "first among equals" was often used to describe China's paramount leader at the zenith of Deng Xiaoping's influence. This has fallen out of favour since the consolidation of power under the current core leader, General Secretary Xi Jinping.


title: Primus inter pares

text: In the federal Commonwealth realms, Canada and Australia, in which King Charles III is head of state as constitutional monarch, a governor-general is appointed by the King-in-Council to represent the King during his absence. The governor-general typically appoints the leader of the political party holding at least a plurality of seats in the elected legislature to be prime minister, whose relationship with the other ministers of the Crown is in theory said to be that of a "primus inter pares", or "first among equals". This is also done at the provincial or state level wherein the lieutenant governors of the Canadian provinces or governors of the Australian states as "Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council" appoints the leader of the provincial or state political party holding at least a plurality of seats in the elected provincial or state legislature to be provincial premier or state premier.


title: Primus inter pares

text: As federations in Canada, lieutenant-governors represent the Canadian monarch in each of the provinces, thus, acting as the "heads of state" in the provinces. Unlike in Australia with the governors of the Australian states, the lieutenant-governors in Canada are not appointed by the King-in-Council, but by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister of Canada known as the "Governor-in-Council". Similarly, in Australia, there are governors to represent the Australian monarch in each of the states of Australia that comprise the federal Commonwealth of Australia, making them "head of state" in each of their own states. In each case, these several governors or lieutenant-governors are not envisaged as subordinate to the governor general – the governor-general of Australia and the governor general of Canada – as a federal viceroy – is "first among equals".


title: Primus inter pares

text: Mayors of German city states have traditionally acted as "primus inter pares". In Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen, which had been Free Imperial Cities from the times of the Holy Roman Empire, the government was called Senate. The mayor was one senator amongst many, often referred to as president of the Senate rather than mayor. This ended in Lübeck with the incorporation into Prussia in 1937. While in a constitutional reform in 1996, the mayor of Hamburg was given broad powers to shape the politics of the Senate of Hamburg, thus, ending his status as "primus inter pares". However, in the city state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen which was created after the Second World War, the mayor has had a similar role in the Senate of Bremen. The same was true until 1995 for the governing mayor of Berlin among his colleagues within the Senate of Berlin.


title: Primus inter pares

text: Starting with the Meiji Constitution of 1885, as part of the "Cabinet System Act", and lasting until the revision of the modern constitution in 1947, the prime minister of Japan was legally considered to be of the same rank as the other ministers who formed the Cabinet. During this time, the prime minister was referred to as "同輩中の首席" "dōhai-chū no shuseki" ("chief among peers").


title: Primus inter pares

text: The prime minister of the Netherlands (officially, the "minister-president") is the chairman of the Council of Ministers and active executive authority of the Dutch government. Although formally no special powers are assigned, the prime minister functions as the "face" of the cabinet of the Netherlands. Usually, the prime minister is also minister of General Affairs. Until 1945, the position of chairman of the Council of Ministers officially switched between the ministers, although practices differed throughout history. In 1945, the position was formally instituted. Although not formally necessary, the prime minister in practice is the leader of the largest party in the majority coalition in the House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament.


title: Primus inter pares

text: The phrase "first among equals" is often used to describe the political succession within the ruling People's Action Party leadership and future candidate for the prime minister of Singapore.


title: Primus inter pares

text: In Switzerland, the seven-member Federal Council constitutes the government. Each year, the Federal Assembly elects a president of the Confederation. By convention, the positions of President and Vice President rotate annually, each Councillor thus becoming Vice President and then President every seven years while in office.


title: Primus inter pares

text: The president is not the Swiss head of state, but is the highest-ranking Swiss official. The president presides over Council meetings and carries out certain representative functions that, in other countries, are the business of the head of state. In urgent situations where a Council decision cannot be made in time, the president is empowered to act on behalf of the whole Council. Apart from that, though, the president is a "primus inter pares", having no power above and beyond the other six councillors.


title: Primus inter pares

text: The term "prime minister" can be compared to "primary minister" or "first minister". Because of this, the prime ministers of many countries are traditionally considered to be "first among equals" – they are the chairman or "head" of a Cabinet rather than holding an office that is "de jure" superior to that of ministers.


title: Primus inter pares

text: The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has frequently been described as "first among equals". In the UK, the executive is the Cabinet, and during Hanoverian times a minister had the role of informing the monarch about proposed legislation in the House of Commons and other matters. In modern times, however, although the phrase is still occasionally used, it understates the powers of the prime minister, which now include many broad, exclusive, executive powers over which cabinet members have little influence.


title: Primus inter pares

text: "First Among Equals" is the title of a popular political novel (1984) by Jeffrey Archer, about the careers and private lives of several men vying to become British Prime Minister. It was later adapted into a ten-part TV series, produced by Granada Television.


title: Primus inter pares

text: Countries and jurisdictions that have adapted the British parliamentary system (such as Canada and Australia) would have the same use for the phrase.


title: Primus inter pares

text: The phrase "first among equals" has also been used to describe the Chief Justice of the United States.


title: Primus inter pares

text: The Chief Justice has no authority over the decisions of the other Justices, but holds one key administrative power: when the Chief Justice votes with the majority on a decision, he can either author the majority opinion himself or assign it to another Justice voting with the majority.


title: Primus inter pares

text: In many private parliamentary bodies, such as clubs, boards, educational faculty, and committees, the officer or member who holds the position of chair or chairman is often regarded as a "first among equals". That is, while most rules of order will grant the chair special powers within the context of a meeting, the position of chair is usually temporary, rotating, and powerless in other contexts, making the occupant merely a temporary leader required to instil order. This is the case for mayors under a council–manager government, as the "mayor" has the same vote as all other council members and cannot override them, although their opinion may have more sway among other members.


title: Primus inter pares

text: The phrase "first among equals" is also used to describe the role of the patriarch of Constantinople, who, as the "ecumenical patriarch", is the first among all the bishops of the Eastern Orthodox Church. He has no direct jurisdiction over the other patriarchs or the other autocephalous Orthodox churches and cannot interfere in the election of bishops in autocephalous churches, but he alone enjoys the right of convening extraordinary synods consisting of them or their delegates to deal with ad hoc situations, and he has also convened well-attended pan-Orthodox Synods in the last forty years. His title is an acknowledgement of his historic significance and of his privilege to serve as primary spokesman for the Eastern Orthodox Communion. His moral authority is highly respected.


title: Primus inter pares

text: The Eastern Orthodox Church also uses the term "first among equals" in regard to the bishop of Rome during the first thousand years of Christianity. Whereas the patriarch of Constantinople is now considered first among the Orthodox patriarchs, the Orthodox Church considers the bishop of Rome (regarded as the "patriarch of the West") the "first among equals" in the Pentarchy of the patriarchal sees according to the ancient, first millennial order (or "taxis" in Greek) of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, established after Constantinople became the eastern capital of the Byzantine Empire. The bishop of Rome no longer holds this distinction in the Orthodox Church because, following the East–West Schism, he is no longer in communion with the Orthodox Church.


title: Primus inter pares

text: The canons relative to the universal primacy of honor of the patriarch of Constantinople are the 9th canon of the synod of Antioch and the 28th canon of the Council of Chalcedon.


title: Primus inter pares

text: The Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches consider the pope (bishop of Rome) to be the single Vicar of Christ, successor of Saint Peter, and leader of all their bishops (Patriarchs included), in Apostolic succession to the apostles. As such, the Catholic Church does not see the pope merely as being "first among equals", but as actually holding an office with supreme authority in canon law over all other bishops. This jurisdictional claim was one of the main causes of the East-West Schism in the Church, which became formal in 1054.


title: Primus inter pares

text: In the Catholic Church, the Dean of the College of Cardinals is the first among equal Prince of the Church in the College, which is the pope's highest-ranking council and elects the papal successor, generally from its own ranks.


title: Primus inter pares

text: Various episcopal sees were granted or claim the title of primate (usually of a past or present political entity), which grants such a "primas" (usually a metropolitan archbishopric, often in a former/present capital) precedence over all other sees in its circumscription, outranking (other) metropolitan sees, but the incumbent primates can be trumped by personal ranks, as they rank below cardinals. More commonly, dioceses are geographically grouped in an ecclesiastical province, where only one holds the rank of metropolitan archbishop, which outranks his colleagues, who are therefore called his suffragans, even if these include (fairly rarely) another archbishop.


title: Primus inter pares

text: According to the Anglican Covenant, the archbishop of Canterbury is "first among equals" in his presidency over the Anglican Communion. The senior bishop of the seven diocesan bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church bears the truncated title primus from "primus inter pares". Leading bishops or primates in other Anglican 'national' churches are often said to be "primus inter pares" within their provinces (e.g. Church of Ireland), while the (first) primatial see of Canterbury remains primus among them.


title: Primus inter pares

text: Based on the antiquity with which ecumenical councils have conceded some kind of universal primacy to the bishops of Rome, participants in Anglican–Catholic dialogues have acknowledged for decades that the pope would properly serve as the titular leader of a reunited church; the Anglicans typically have in mind an honorary (non-jurisdictional) primacy such as the phrase "primus inter pares" implies. In one example of such acknowledgement, the International Anglican-Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission, in its 2007 agreed statement "Growing Together in Unity and Mission," "urge[s] Anglicans and Catholics to explore together how the ministry of the Bishop of Rome might be offered and received in order to assist our Communions to grow towards full, ecclesial communion".


title: Primus inter pares

text: The Moderator of the General Assembly in a Presbyterian church is similarly designated as a "primus inter pares". This concept holds also for the Moderators of each Synod, Presbytery, and Kirk Session. As all elders are ordained – some for teaching and some for ruling – none sit in higher status, but all are considered equal behind the one and only head of the church Jesus Christ.


title: Primus inter pares

text: In the Lutheran Church of Sweden, the Archbishop of Uppsala is considered by the church as "primus inter pares". As such, the Archbishop of Uppsala has no powers over the other 13 bishops but has some additional administrative and spiritual duties, as specified in the Church Order of the Church of Sweden.


title: Primus inter pares

text: According to the chapter 8 of the Church Order, only the Archbishop of Uppsala can ordain a bishop. The other bishops of the Church of Sweden are peers, not superior, to the Archbishop of Uppsala. Among the Archbishop of Uppsala's other duties is the obligation to convene and chair the Episcopal Assembly. Unlike the other bishops, who are elected to office by members of their diocese, the Archbishop of Uppsala is elected by the entire body of the church. There is a peculiar regulation that stipulates that the total votes cast in the archdiocese of Uppsala, when electing an archbishop, "shall be divided by ten, with decimals removed", before being added to the national vote.


title: Jeff Anderson

text: Jeffrey Allan Anderson (born April 21, 1970) is an American film and television actor, director, and screenwriter best known for starring as Randal Graves in "Clerks," "Clerks II," and "Clerks III". In between, he has appeared in other Kevin Smith-directed films and has written, directed, and starred in "Now You Know".


title: Jeff Anderson

text: Born in Connecticut and raised in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, Anderson attended Henry Hudson Regional High School, with his friend, aspiring writer Kevin Smith; they graduated in 1988.


title: Jeff Anderson

text: While Anderson was working at AT&T, Smith was working on his debut movie "Clerks". As a joke, Anderson auditioned for the role of "Jay," and based on this audition, Smith later offered Anderson a lead role as video store employee Randal Graves, a foul-mouthed apathetic slacker, who patronized, angered, and mocked his customers while avoiding any real work opportunities.


title: Jeff Anderson

text: For his role in "Clerks", Anderson was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance.


title: Jeff Anderson

text: In 2002, Anderson wrote, directed, and starred in "Now You Know". The writing process lasted only three months. Anderson received a nomination for Best Male Performance at the Chicago Film Festival for his role in "Love 101", and has been seen in Peter Bergstrom's Something Cool. Anderson also started his own production company in Hollywood. In 2006, Anderson reprised his role as Randal in "Clerks II".


title: Jeff Anderson

text: In 2008, Anderson appeared in Kevin Smith's romantic comedy "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" as Deacon, the cameraman and film editor for the porno made by leading stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks.


title: Jeff Anderson

text: On September 14, 2010, Anderson made his first appearance on Smith's SModcast filling in for Scott Mosier on SModcast #134. In his podcast, Anderson stated he had moved out of Los Angeles and into a "retirement community in the mountains" where he is "the youngest person there by 20 years." He also said he remarried in 2009, to an actress named Barbara Jacques he met while house sitting for Kevin Smith.


title: Jeff Anderson

text: In April 2017, it was confirmed that production on the proposed sequel "Clerks III" had ceased, as Anderson was not interested in appearing in the Kevin Smith-directed film. Although an $8 million budget had been obtained, locations were being scouted in Philadelphia and a crew was being assembled, with less than 2 months until production was to start, Anderson decided he would not be involved; the reasons have not been made public. Smith said he would not recast the role and production on the film was halted indefinitely. On October 1, 2019, Smith announced on Instagram that "Clerks III" was happening and that Jeff Anderson agreed to reprise his role as Randal. "It’ll be a movie that concludes a saga. It’ll be a movie about how you’re never too old to completely change your life. It’ll be a movie about how a decades-spanning friendship finally confronts the future. It’ll be a movie that brings us back to the beginning — a return to the cradle of civilization in the great state of #newjersey. It’ll be a movie that stars Jeff and Brian O'Halloran, with me and Jay in supporting roles. And it’ll be a movie called CLERKS III!"


title: Kim Min-ju

text: Kim Min-ju (; born February 5, 2001) is a South Korean singer and actress. She is best known as a former member of South Korean-Japanese girl group Iz*One after finishing 11th in Mnet's girl group survival show "Produce 48," representing Urban Works.


title: Kim Min-ju

text: Following the group's disbandment, she and Urban Works announced her intentions to pursue her acting career. Since June 2020, she has been hosting music program "Show! Music Core." She departed Urban Works in 2022, where she signed with Management SOOP afterwards.


title: Kim Min-ju

text: Kim was born on February 5, 2001. She has a younger sister and an older brother. She attended School of Performing Arts Seoul and graduated in February 2020. Prior to joining the reality girl group survival show "Produce 48", she had appeared as an actress in music videos and Korean dramas, notably the 2018 MBC television series "Tempted", wherein she portrayed the role of the young Choi Su-ji (Moon Ga-young).


title: Kim Min-ju

text: From June to August 2018, Kim represented Urban Works on "Produce 48". On the finale episode, she eventually placed eleventh and thus joined the show's final debut lineup, Iz*One. On October 29, 2018, she officially debuted as a member of the group with the release of their first extended play (EP) "Color*Iz".


title: Kim Min-ju

text: In 2019, Kim starred in the film "The Fault Is Not Yours", which was premiered in May at 20th Jeonju International Film Festival. It was recorded prior to her appearing in "Produce 48".


title: Kim Min-ju

text: In June 2020, Kim, as Kang Mi-na's successor, joined Kang Chan-hee and Stray Kids' Hyunjin as co-hosts of the South Korean music program "Show! Music Core".


title: Kim Min-ju

text: After Iz*One's disbandment on April 29, 2021, Kim returned to Urban Works. On October 7, her company officially announced that she will promote as an actress.


title: The World to Come

text: The World to Come is a 2020 American drama film directed by Mona Fastvold, from a screenplay by Ron Hansen and Jim Shepard, based upon Shepard's story of the same name. It stars Katherine Waterston, Vanessa Kirby, Christopher Abbott and Casey Affleck, and follows two neighboring couples battling hardship and isolation in mid-19th century America.


title: The World to Come

text: It had its world premiere at the 77th Venice International Film Festival on September 6, 2020, where it won the Queer Lion award for best LGBTQ-themed film at the festival. It was released in a limited release on February 12, 2021, followed by video on demand on March 2, 2021, by Bleecker Street.


title: The World to Come

text: In 1856 in Schoharie County, Abigail and Dyer live an isolated life in the country working as farmers. They are both devastated by the recent loss of their young daughter Nellie.


title: The World to Come

text: A new similarly childless couple moves in beside them. Abigail is immediately entranced by Tallie, the wife, and the two women form a quick and deep friendship. Abigail confides to Tallie that her marriage with Dyer is based on practicality, not romance while Tallie reveals that her husband Finney can be quarrelsome and controlling.


title: The World to Come

text: For Abigail's birthday Tallie buys her an atlas that she had longed for. When Tallie is returning home from the birthday visit she is caught in a storm that nearly kills her. Her husband takes her away to recuperate, and when she returns it is spring and Tallie resumes her visits to Abigail.


title: The World to Come

text: Eventually Tallie reveals to Abigail that she only dreams of being with her. Abigail feels similarly and the two kiss. They begin a sexual affair. Dyer, who has become increasingly emotional since their child's death, is upset of the time that Abigail spends with Tallie. Tallie's husband becomes similarly jealous of the hours she is spending away from him.


title: The World to Come

text: Finney eventually asks Abigail and Dyer to dinner where he uncomfortably brings up their lost child and Abigail notices bruises on Tallie's neck. Finney tells a morbid story about holding his disobedient dog outside until it froze to death. Afterwards Tallie doesn't visit for a week. Abigail finally goes in search of her and finds her rented house empty with only a bloody kerchief left behind. Though she suspects mischief, she eventually receives a letter from Tallie informing her she has moved 85 miles away to the Skaneateles area of Onondaga County.


title: The World to Come

text: Abigail insists on going to see Tallie and Dyer reluctantly complies. However by the time they arrive Tallie is dead. Finney claims it is from diphtheria, but a flashback reveals Finney holding and dancing with Tallie until she collapsed.


title: The World to Come

text: Abigail returns to her life on the farm. She and Dyer continue to work together but are still emotionally estranged. To comfort herself, Abigail imagines murdering Finney one day and tries to picture Nellie and Tallie comforting themselves in the afterlife. When Dyer asks her to imagine anything she can do to ease their longing, Abigail begins to imagine Tallie in his place.


title: The World to Come

text: It was announced in February 2019 that Casey Affleck would produce and star in the film, with Mona Fastvold directing. Katherine Waterston, Vanessa Kirby and Jesse Plemons were also cast in the film, although Plemons dropped out and was later replaced with Christopher Abbott.


title: The World to Come

text: British composer Daniel Blumberg was commissioned to compose music for the film. He collaborated with avant-garde musicians including Peter Brötzmann, Josephine Foster and Steve Noble on the score, and enlisted Scott Walker producer Peter Walsh to co-produce.


title: The World to Come

text: The film had its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival on September 6, 2020. Shortly after, Bleecker Street acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions will distribute the film outside the United States. It was released in a limited release on February 12, 2021, followed by video on demand on March 2, 2021. On 6 March 2022, it began showing on Sky Cinema Premiere in the United Kingdom.


title: The World to Come

text: "The World to Come" holds approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on reviews, with an average of . The website's critics consensus reads: ""The World to Come" is made from ingredients that will be familiar to fans of period forbidden romance movies, but they're given fresh life thanks to an excellent cast." On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 73 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally positive reviews".


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Genetically modified crops (GM crops) are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering methods. Plant genomes can be engineered by physical methods or by use of "Agrobacterium" for the delivery of sequences hosted in T-DNA binary vectors. In most cases, the aim is to introduce a new trait to the plant which does not occur naturally in the species. Examples in food crops include resistance to certain pests, diseases, environmental conditions, reduction of spoilage, resistance to chemical treatments (e.g. resistance to a herbicide), or improving the nutrient profile of the crop. Examples in non-food crops include production of pharmaceutical agents, biofuels, and other industrially useful goods, as well as for bioremediation.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Farmers have widely adopted GM technology. Acreage increased from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to 185.1 million hectares in 2016, some 12% of global cropland. As of 2016, major crop (soybean, maize, canola and cotton) traits consist of herbicide tolerance (95.9 million hectares) insect resistance (25.2 million hectares), or both (58.5 million hectares). In 2015, 53.6 million ha of Genetically modified maize were under cultivation (almost 1/3 of the maize crop). GM maize outperformed its predecessors: yield was 5.6 to 24.5% higher with less mycotoxins (−28.8%), fumonisin (−30.6%) and thricotecens (−36.5%). Non-target organisms were unaffected, except for "Braconidae", represented by a parasitoid of European corn borer, the target of "Lepidoptera" active Bt maize. Biogeochemical parameters such as lignin content did not vary, while biomass decomposition was higher.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: A 2014 meta-analysis concluded that GM technology adoption had reduced chemical pesticide use by 37%, increased crop yields by 22%, and increased farmer profits by 68%. This reduction in pesticide use has been ecologically beneficial, but benefits may be reduced by overuse. Yield gains and pesticide reductions are larger for insect-resistant crops than for herbicide-tolerant crops. Yield and profit gains are higher in developing countries than in developed countries. Pesticide poisonings were reduced by 2.4 to 9 million cases per year in India alone and widespread introduction of Bt cotton led to 25% decline in farmer suicides in India. A 2011 review of the relationship between Bt cotton adoption and farmer suicides in India found that "Available data show no evidence of a 'resurgence' of farmer suicides" and that "Bt cotton technology has been very effective overall in India."


title: Genetically modified crops

text: There is a scientific consensus that currently available food derived from GM crops poses no greater risk to human health than conventional food, but that each GM food needs to be tested on a case-by-case basis before introduction. Nonetheless, members of the public are much less likely than scientists to perceive GM foods as safe. The legal and regulatory status of GM foods varies by country, with some nations banning or restricting them, and others permitting them with widely differing degrees of regulation.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: However, opponents have objected to GM crops on grounds including environmental impacts, food safety, whether GM crops are needed to address food needs, whether they are sufficiently accessible to farmers in developing countries and concerns over subjecting crops to intellectual property law. Safety concerns led 38 countries, including 19 in Europe, to officially prohibit their cultivation.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Humans have directly influenced the genetic makeup of plants to increase their value as a crop through domestication. The first evidence of plant domestication comes from emmer and einkorn wheat found in pre-Pottery Neolithic A villages in Southwest Asia dated about 10,500 to 10,100 BC. The Fertile Crescent of Western Asia, Egypt, and India were sites of the earliest planned sowing and harvesting of plants that had previously been gathered in the wild. Independent development of agriculture occurred in northern and southern China, Africa's Sahel, New Guinea and several regions of the Americas. The eight Neolithic founder crops (emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax) had all appeared by about 7,000 BC. Traditional crop breeders have long introduced foreign germplasm into crops by creating novel crosses. A hybrid cereal grain was created in 1875, by crossing wheat and rye. Since then traits including dwarfing genes and rust resistance have been introduced in that manner. Plant tissue culture and deliberate mutations have enabled humans to alter the makeup of plant genomes.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Modern advances in genetics have allowed humans to more directly alter plants genetics. In 1970 Hamilton Smith's lab discovered restriction enzymes that allowed DNA to be cut at specific places, enabling scientists to isolate genes from an organism's genome. DNA ligases that join broken DNA together had been discovered earlier in 1967, and by combining the two technologies, it was possible to "cut and paste" DNA sequences and create recombinant DNA. Plasmids, discovered in 1952, became important tools for transferring information between cells and replicating DNA sequences. In 1907 a bacterium that caused plant tumors, "Agrobacterium tumefaciens", was discovered and in the early 1970s the tumor inducing agent was found to be a DNA plasmid called the Ti plasmid. By removing the genes in the plasmid that caused the tumor and adding in novel genes researchers were able to infect plants with "A. tumefaciens" and let the bacteria insert their chosen DNA sequence into the genomes of the plants. As not all plant cells were susceptible to infection by "A. tumefaciens" other methods were developed, including electroporation, micro-injection and particle bombardment with a gene gun (invented in 1987). In the 1980s techniques were developed to introduce isolated chloroplasts back into a plant cell that had its cell wall removed. With the introduction of the gene gun in 1987 it became possible to integrate foreign genes into a chloroplast. Genetic transformation has become very efficient in some model organisms. In 2008 genetically modified seeds were produced in "Arabidopsis thaliana" by dipping the flowers in an "Agrobacterium" solution. In 2013 CRISPR was first used to target modification of plant genomes.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: The first genetically engineered crop plant was tobacco, reported in 1983. It was developed creating a chimeric gene that joined an antibiotic resistant gene to the T1 plasmid from "Agrobacterium". The tobacco was infected with "Agrobacterium" transformed with this plasmid resulting in the chimeric gene being inserted into the plant. Through tissue culture techniques a single tobacco cell was selected that contained the gene and a new plant grown from it. The first field trials of genetically engineered plants occurred in France and the US in 1986, tobacco plants were engineered to be resistant to herbicides. In 1987 Plant Genetic Systems, founded by Marc Van Montagu and Jeff Schell, was the first company to genetically engineer insect-resistant plants by incorporating genes that produced insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) into tobacco. The People's Republic of China was the first country to commercialise transgenic plants, introducing a virus-resistant tobacco in 1992. In 1994 Calgene attained approval to commercially release the Flavr Savr tomato, a tomato engineered to have a longer shelf life. Also in 1994, the European Union approved tobacco engineered to be resistant to the herbicide bromoxynil, making it the first genetically engineered crop commercialised in Europe. In 1995 Bt Potato was approved safe by the Environmental Protection Agency, after having been approved by the FDA, making it the first pesticide producing crop to be approved in the US. In 1996 a total of 35 approvals had been granted to commercially grow 8 transgenic crops and one flower crop (carnation), with 8 different traits in 6 countries plus the EU. By 2010, 29 countries had planted commercialised genetically modified crops and a further 31 countries had granted regulatory approval for transgenic crops to be imported.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: The first genetically modified animal to be commercialised was the GloFish, a Zebra fish with a fluorescent gene added that allows it to glow in the dark under ultraviolet light. The first genetically modified animal to be approved for food use was AquAdvantage salmon in 2015. The salmon were transformed with a growth hormone-regulating gene from a Pacific Chinook salmon and a promoter from an ocean pout enabling it to grow year-round instead of only during spring and summer.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Genetically engineered crops have genes added or removed using genetic engineering techniques, originally including gene guns, electroporation, microinjection and agrobacterium. More recently, CRISPR and TALEN offered much more precise and convenient editing techniques.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Gene guns (also known as biolistics) "shoot" (direct high energy particles or radiations against) target genes into plant cells. It is the most common method. DNA is bound to tiny particles of gold or tungsten which are subsequently shot into plant tissue or single plant cells under high pressure. The accelerated particles penetrate both the cell wall and membranes. The DNA separates from the metal and is integrated into plant DNA inside the nucleus. This method has been applied successfully for many cultivated crops, especially monocots like wheat or maize, for which transformation using "Agrobacterium tumefaciens" has been less successful. The major disadvantage of this procedure is that serious damage can be done to the cellular tissue.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: "Agrobacterium tumefaciens-"mediated transformation is another common technique. Agrobacteria are natural plant parasites. Their natural ability to transfer genes provides another engineering method. To create a suitable environment for themselves, these Agrobacteria insert their genes into plant hosts, resulting in a proliferation of modified plant cells near the soil level (crown gall). The genetic information for tumor growth is encoded on a mobile, circular DNA fragment (plasmid). When "Agrobacterium" infects a plant, it transfers this T-DNA to a random site in the plant genome. When used in genetic engineering the bacterial T-DNA is removed from the bacterial plasmid and replaced with the desired foreign gene. The bacterium is a vector, enabling transportation of foreign genes into plants. This method works especially well for dicotyledonous plants like potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco. Agrobacteria infection is less successful in crops like wheat and maize.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Electroporation is used when the plant tissue does not contain cell walls. In this technique, "DNA enters the plant cells through miniature pores which are temporarily caused by electric pulses."


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Plant scientists, backed by results of modern comprehensive profiling of crop composition, point out that crops modified using GM techniques are less likely to have unintended changes than are conventionally bred crops.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: In research tobacco and "Arabidopsis thaliana" are the most frequently modified plants, due to well-developed transformation methods, easy propagation and well studied genomes. They serve as model organisms for other plant species.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Introducing new genes into plants requires a promoter specific to the area where the gene is to be expressed. For instance, to express a gene only in rice grains and not in leaves, an endosperm-specific promoter is used. The codons of the gene must be optimized for the organism due to codon usage bias.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Transgenic plants have genes inserted into them that are derived from another species. The inserted genes can come from species within the same kingdom (plant to plant), or between kingdoms (for example, bacteria to plant). In many cases the inserted DNA has to be modified slightly in order to be correctly and efficiently expressed in the host organism. Transgenic plants are used to express proteins, like the cry toxins from "B. thuringiensis", herbicide-resistant genes, antibodies, and antigens for vaccinations. A study led by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) also found viral genes in transgenic plants.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Transgenic carrots have been used to produce the drug Taliglucerase alfa which is used to treat Gaucher's disease. In the laboratory, transgenic plants have been modified to increase photosynthesis (currently about 2% at most plants versus the theoretic potential of 9–10%). This is possible by changing the rubisco enzyme (i.e. changing C plants into C plants), by placing the rubisco in a carboxysome, by adding pumps in the cell wall, or by changing the leaf form or size. Plants have been engineered to exhibit bioluminescence that may become a sustainable alternative to electric lighting.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Cisgenic plants are made using genes found within the same species or a closely related one, where conventional plant breeding can occur. Some breeders and scientists argue that cisgenic modification is useful for plants that are difficult to crossbreed by conventional means (such as potatoes), and that plants in the cisgenic category should not require the same regulatory scrutiny as transgenics.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Genetically modified plants can also be developed using gene knockdown or gene knockout to alter the genetic makeup of a plant without incorporating genes from other plants. In 2014, Chinese researcher Gao Caixia filed patents on the creation of a strain of wheat that is resistant to powdery mildew. The strain lacks genes that encode proteins that repress defenses against the mildew. The researchers deleted all three copies of the genes from wheat's hexaploid genome. Gao used the TALENs and CRISPR gene editing tools without adding or changing any other genes. No field trials were immediately planned. The CRISPR technique has also been used by Penn State researcher Yinong Yang to modify white button mushrooms ("Agaricus bisporus") to be non-browning, and by DuPont Pioneer to make a new variety of corn.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: GM food's economic value to farmers is one of its major benefits, including in developing nations. A 2010 study found that Bt corn provided economic benefits of $6.9 billion over the previous 14 years in five Midwestern states. The majority ($4.3 billion) accrued to farmers producing non-Bt corn. This was attributed to European corn borer populations reduced by exposure to Bt corn, leaving fewer to attack conventional corn nearby. Agriculture economists calculated that "world surplus [increased by] $240.3 million for 1996. Of this total, the largest share (59%) went to U.S. farmers. Seed company Monsanto received the next largest share (21%), followed by US consumers (9%), the rest of the world (6%), and the germplasm supplier, Delta & Pine Land Company of Mississippi (5%)."


title: Genetically modified crops

text: According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), in 2014 approximately 18 million farmers grew biotech crops in 28 countries; about 94% of the farmers were resource-poor in developing countries. 53% of the global biotech crop area of 181.5 million hectares was grown in 20 developing countries. PG Economics comprehensive 2012 study concluded that GM crops increased farm incomes worldwide by $14 billion in 2010, with over half this total going to farmers in developing countries.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Forgoing these benefits is costly. Wesseler "et al.", 2017 estimate the cost of delay for several crops including GM banana in Uganda, GM cowpea in west Africa, and GM maize/corn in Kenya. They estimate Nigeria alone loses $33–46m annually. The potential and alleged harms of GM crops must then be compared to these costs of delay.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Critics challenged the claimed benefits to farmers over the prevalence of biased observers and by the absence of randomized controlled trials. The main Bt crop grown by small farmers in developing countries is cotton. A 2006 review of Bt cotton findings by agricultural economists concluded, "the overall balance sheet, though promising, is mixed. Economic returns are highly variable over years, farm type, and geographical location".


title: Genetically modified crops

text: In 2013 the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) asked the EU to allow the development of agricultural GM technologies to enable more sustainable agriculture, by employing fewer land, water, and nutrient resources. EASAC also criticizes the EU's "time-consuming and expensive regulatory framework" and said that the EU had fallen behind in the adoption of GM technologies.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Participants in agriculture business markets include seed companies, agrochemical companies, distributors, farmers, grain elevators and universities that develop new crops/traits and whose agricultural extensions advise farmers on best practices. According to a 2012 review based on data from the late 1990s and early 2000s, much of the GM crop grown each year is used for livestock feed and increased demand for meat leads to increased demand for GM feed crops. Feed grain usage as a percentage of total crop production is 70% for corn and more than 90% of oil seed meals such as soybeans. About 65 million metric tons of GM corn grains and about 70 million metric tons of soybean meals derived from GM soybean become feed.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: In 2014 the global value of biotech seed was US$15.7 billion; US$11.3 billion (72%) was in industrial countries and US$4.4 billion (28%) was in the developing countries. In 2009, Monsanto had $7.3 billion in sales of seeds and from licensing its technology; DuPont, through its Pioneer subsidiary, was the next biggest company in that market. As of 2009, the overall Roundup line of products including the GM seeds represented about 50% of Monsanto's business.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Some patents on GM traits have expired, allowing the legal development of generic strains that include these traits. For example, generic glyphosate-tolerant GM soybean is now available. Another impact is that traits developed by one vendor can be added to another vendor's proprietary strains, potentially increasing product choice and competition. The patent on the first type of "Roundup Ready" crop that Monsanto produced (soybeans) expired in 2014 and the first harvest of off-patent soybeans occurs in the spring of 2015. Monsanto has broadly licensed the patent to other seed companies that include the glyphosate resistance trait in their seed products. About 150 companies have licensed the technology, including Syngenta and DuPont Pioneer.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: In 2014, the largest review yet concluded that GM crops' effects on farming were positive. The meta-analysis considered all published English-language examinations of the agronomic and economic impacts between 1995 and March 2014 for three major GM crops: soybean, maize, and cotton. The study found that herbicide-tolerant crops have lower production costs, while for insect-resistant crops the reduced pesticide use was offset by higher seed prices, leaving overall production costs about the same.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Yields increased 9% for herbicide tolerance and 25% for insect resistant varieties. Farmers who adopted GM crops made 69% higher profits than those who did not. The review found that GM crops help farmers in developing countries, increasing yields by 14 percentage points.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: The researchers considered some studies that were not peer-reviewed and a few that did not report sample sizes. They attempted to correct for publication bias, by considering sources beyond academic journals. The large data set allowed the study to control for potentially confounding variables such as fertilizer use. Separately, they concluded that the funding source did not influence study results.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Under special conditions meant to reveal only genetic yield factors, many GM crops are known to actually have "lower" yields. This is variously due to one or both of: Yield drag, wherein the trait itself lowers yield, either by competing for synthesis feedstock or by being inserted slightly inaccurately, into the middle of a yield-relevant gene; and/or yield lag, wherein it takes some time to breed the newest yield genetics into the GM lines. This does not reflect realistic field conditions however, especially leaving out pest pressure which is often the point of the GM trait. See for example Roundup Ready Productivity claims.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Combined features of increased yield, decreased land use, reduced use of fertilizer and reduced farming machinery use create a feedback loop that reduces carbon emissions related to farming. These reductions have been estimated at 7.5% of total agricultural emissions in the EU or 33 millions tons of .


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Gene editing may also increase yields non-specific to the use of any biocides/pesticides. In March 2022, field test results showed CRISPR-based gene knockout of KRN2 in maize and OsKRN2 in rice increased grain yields by ~10% and ~8% without any detected negative effects.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: GM crops grown today, or under development, have been modified with various traits. These traits include improved shelf life, disease resistance, stress resistance, herbicide resistance, pest resistance, production of useful goods such as biofuel or drugs, and ability to absorb toxins and for use in bioremediation of pollution.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Recently, research and development has been targeted to enhancement of crops that are locally important in developing countries, such as insect-resistant cowpea for Africa and insect-resistant brinjal (eggplant).


title: Genetically modified crops

text: The first genetically modified crop approved for sale in the U.S. was the "FlavrSavr" tomato, which had a longer shelf life.<ref name="doi10.3733/ca.v054n04p6"></ref> First sold in 1994, FlavrSavr tomato production ceased in 1997. It is no longer on the market.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: In February 2015 Arctic Apples were approved by the USDA, becoming the first genetically modified apple approved for US sale. Gene silencing was used to reduce the expression of polyphenol oxidase (PPO), thus preventing enzymatic browning of the fruit after it has been sliced open. The trait was added to Granny Smith and Golden Delicious varieties. The trait includes a bacterial antibiotic resistance gene that provides resistance to the antibiotic kanamycin. The genetic engineering involved cultivation in the presence of kanamycin, which allowed only resistant cultivars to survive. Humans consuming apples do not acquire kanamycin resistance, per arcticapple.com. The FDA approved the apples in March 2015.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Plants use non-photochemical quenching to protect them from excessive amounts of sunlight. Plants can switch on the quenching mechanism almost instantaneously, but it takes much longer for it to switch off again. During the time that it is switched off, the amount of energy that is wasted increases. A genetic modification in three genes allows to correct this (in a trial with tobacco plants). As a result, yields were 14-20% higher, in terms of the weight of the dry leaves harvested. The plants had larger leaves, were taller and had more vigorous roots.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Another improvement that can be made on the photosynthesis process (with C3 pathway plants) is on photorespiration. By inserting the C4 pathway into C3 plants, productivity may increase by as much as 50% for cereal crops, such as rice.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: The Harnessing Plants Initiative focuses on creating GM plants that have increased root mass, root depth and suberin content.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Some GM soybeans offer improved oil profiles for processing. "Camelina sativa" has been modified to produce plants that accumulate high levels of oils similar to fish oils.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Golden rice, developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), provides greater amounts of vitamin A targeted at reducing vitamin A deficiency.<ref name="doi10.1038/news.2011.233"></ref> As of January 2016, golden rice has not yet been grown commercially in any country.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: A genetically modified cassava under development offers lower cyanogen glucosides and enhanced protein and other nutrients (called BioCassava).


title: Genetically modified crops

text: In November 2014, the USDA approved a potato that prevents bruising and produces less acrylamide when fried. They do not employ genes from non-potato species. The trait was added to the Russet Burbank, Ranger Russet and Atlantic varieties.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Plants have been engineered to tolerate non-biological stressors, such as drought, frost, and high soil salinity. In 2011, Monsanto's DroughtGard maize became the first drought-resistant GM crop to receive US marketing approval.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Drought resistance occurs by modifying the plant's genes responsible for the mechanism known as the crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), which allows the plants to survive despite low water levels. This holds promise for water-heavy crops such as rice, wheat, soybeans and poplar to accelerate their adaptation to water-limited environments. Several salinity tolerance mechanisms have been identified in salt-tolerant crops. For example, rice, canola and tomato crops have been genetically modified to increase their tolerance to salt stress.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: As of 1999, the most prevalent GM trait was glyphosate-tolerance. Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup and other herbicide products) kills plants by interfering with the shikimate pathway in plants, which is essential for the synthesis of the aromatic amino acids phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan. The shikimate pathway is not present in animals, which instead obtain aromatic amino acids from their diet. More specifically, glyphosate inhibits the enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS).


title: Genetically modified crops

text: This trait was developed because the herbicides used on grain and grass crops at the time were highly toxic and not effective against narrow-leaved weeds. Thus, developing crops that could withstand spraying with glyphosate would both reduce environmental and health risks, and give an agricultural edge to the farmer.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Some micro-organisms have a version of EPSPS that is resistant to glyphosate inhibition. One of these was isolated from an "Agrobacterium" strain CP4 (CP4 EPSPS) that was resistant to glyphosate. The CP4 EPSPS gene was engineered for plant expression by fusing the 5' end of the gene to a chloroplast transit peptide derived from the petunia EPSPS. This transit peptide was used because it had shown previously an ability to deliver bacterial EPSPS to the chloroplasts of other plants. This CP4 EPSPS gene was cloned and transfected into soybeans.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: The plasmid used to move the gene into soybeans was PV-GMGTO4. It contained three bacterial genes, two CP4 EPSPS genes, and a gene encoding beta-glucuronidase (GUS) from "Escherichia coli" as a marker. The DNA was injected into the soybeans using the particle acceleration method. Soybean cultivar A54O3 was used for the transformation.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Crops have been commercialized that are resistant to the herbicide glufosinate, as well. Crops engineered for resistance to multiple herbicides to allow farmers to use a mixed group of two, three, or four different chemicals are under development to combat growing herbicide resistance.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: In October 2014 the US EPA registered Dow's Enlist Duo maize, which is genetically modified to be resistant to both glyphosate and 2,4-D, in six states. Inserting a bacterial aryloxyalkanoate dioxygenase gene, "aad1" makes the corn resistant to 2,4-D. The USDA had approved maize and soybeans with the mutation in September 2014.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Monsanto has requested approval for a stacked strain that is tolerant of both glyphosate and dicamba. The request includes plans for avoiding herbicide drift to other crops. Significant damage to other non-resistant crops occurred from dicamba formulations intended to reduce volatilization drifting when sprayed on resistant soybeans in 2017. The newer dicamba formulation labels specify to not spray when average wind speeds are above to avoid particle drift, average wind speeds below to avoid temperature inversions, and rain or high temperatures are in the next day forecast. However, these conditions typically only occur during June and July for a few hours at a time.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Tobacco, corn, rice and some other crops have been engineered to express genes encoding for insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The introduction of Bt crops during the period between 1996 and 2005 has been estimated to have reduced the total volume of insecticide active ingredient use in the United States by over 100 thousand tons. This represents a 19.4% reduction in insecticide use.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: In the late 1990s, a genetically modified potato that was resistant to the Colorado potato beetle was withdrawn because major buyers rejected it, fearing consumer opposition.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Papaya, potatoes, and squash have been engineered to resist viral pathogens such as cucumber mosaic virus which, despite its name, infects a wide variety of plants.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Virus resistant papaya were developed in response to a papaya ringspot virus (PRV) outbreak in Hawaii in the late 1990s. They incorporate PRV DNA. By 2010, 80% of Hawaiian papaya plants were genetically modified.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Potatoes were engineered for resistance to potato leaf roll virus and Potato virus Y in 1998. Poor sales led to their market withdrawal after three years.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Yellow squash that were resistant to at first two, then three viruses were developed, beginning in the 1990s. The viruses are watermelon, cucumber and zucchini/courgette yellow mosaic. Squash was the second GM crop to be approved by US regulators. The trait was later added to zucchini.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Many strains of corn have been developed in recent years to combat the spread of Maize dwarf mosaic virus, a costly virus that causes stunted growth which is carried in Johnson grass and spread by aphid insect vectors. These strands are commercially available although the resistance is not standard among GM corn variants.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: In 2012, the FDA approved the first plant-produced pharmaceutical, a treatment for Gaucher's Disease. Tobacco plants have been modified to produce therapeutic antibodies.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Algae is under development for use in biofuels. The focus of Microalgae for mass production for biofuels modifying the algae to produce more lipid has become a focus yet will take years to see results due to the cost of this process to extract lipids. Researchers in Singapore were working on GM jatropha for biofuel production. Syngenta has USDA approval to market a maize trademarked Enogen that has been genetically modified to convert its starch to sugar for ethanol. Some trees have been genetically modified to either have less lignin, or to express lignin with chemically labile bonds. Lignin is the critical limiting factor when using wood to make bio-ethanol because lignin limits the accessibility of cellulose microfibrils to depolymerization by enzymes. Besides with trees, the chemically labile lignin bonds are also very useful for cereal crops such as maize,


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Companies and labs are working on plants that can be used to make bioplastics. Potatoes that produce industrially useful starches have been developed as well. Oilseed can be modified to produce fatty acids for detergents, substitute fuels and petrochemicals.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Besides the modified oilcrop above, "Camelina sativa" has also been modified to produce "Helicoverpa armigera" pheromones and is in progress with a "Spodoptera frugiperda" version. The "H. armigera" pheromones have been tested and are effective.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Scientists at the University of York developed a weed ("Arabidopsis thaliana") that contains genes from bacteria that could clean TNT and RDX-explosive soil contaminants in 2011. 16 million hectares in the US (1.5% of the total surface) are estimated to be contaminated with TNT and RDX. However "A. thaliana" was not tough enough for use on military test grounds. Modifications in 2016 included switchgrass and bentgrass.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Genetically modified plants have been used for bioremediation of contaminated soils. Mercury, selenium and organic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Marine environments are especially vulnerable since pollution such as oil spills are not containable. In addition to anthropogenic pollution, millions of tons of petroleum annually enter the marine environment from natural seepages. Despite its toxicity, a considerable fraction of petroleum oil entering marine systems is eliminated by the hydrocarbon-degrading activities of microbial communities. Particularly successful is a recently discovered group of specialists, the so-called hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria (HCCB) that may offer useful genes.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Crops such as maize reproduce sexually each year. This randomizes which genes get propagated to the next generation, meaning that desirable traits can be lost. To maintain a high-quality crop, some farmers purchase seeds every year. Typically, the seed company maintains two inbred varieties and crosses them into a hybrid strain that is then sold. Related plants like sorghum and gamma grass are able to perform apomixis, a form of asexual reproduction that keeps the plant's DNA intact. This trait is apparently controlled by a single dominant gene, but traditional breeding has been unsuccessful in creating asexually-reproducing maize. Genetic engineering offers another route to this goal. Successful modification would allow farmers to replant harvested seeds that retain desirable traits, rather than relying on purchased seed.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Genetic modifications to some crops also exist, which make it easier to process the crop, i.e. by growing in a more compact form. Also, some crops (such as tomatoes) have been genetic modified to contain no seed at all.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Several modifications of "Camelina sativa" have been done, see Edible oils and Non-pesticide pest management products above.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: The number of USDA-approved field releases for testing grew from 4 in 1985 to 1,194 in 2002 and averaged around 800 per year thereafter. The number of sites per release and the number of gene constructs (ways that the gene of interest is packaged together with other elements) – have rapidly increased since 2005. Releases with agronomic properties (such as drought resistance) jumped from 1,043 in 2005 to 5,190 in 2013. As of September 2013, about 7,800 releases had been approved for corn, more than 2,200 for soybeans, more than 1,100 for cotton, and about 900 for potatoes. Releases were approved for herbicide tolerance (6,772 releases), insect resistance (4,809), product quality such as flavor or nutrition (4,896), agronomic properties like drought resistance (5,190), and virus/fungal resistance (2,616). The institutions with the most authorized field releases include Monsanto with 6,782, Pioneer/DuPont with 1,405, Syngenta with 565, and USDA's Agricultural Research Service with 370. As of September 2013 USDA had received proposals for releasing GM rice, squash, plum, rose, tobacco, flax, and chicory.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Constant exposure to a toxin creates evolutionary pressure for pests resistant to that toxin. Over-reliance on glyphosate and a reduction in the diversity of weed management practices allowed the spread of glyphosate resistance in 14 weed species in the US, and in soybeans.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: To reduce resistance to "Bacillus thuringiensis" (Bt) crops, the 1996 commercialization of transgenic cotton and maize came with a management strategy to prevent insects from becoming resistant. Insect resistance management plans are mandatory for Bt crops. The aim is to encourage a large population of pests so that any (recessive) resistance genes are diluted within the population. Resistance lowers evolutionary fitness in the absence of the stressor, Bt. In refuges, non-resistant strains outcompete resistant ones.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: With sufficiently high levels of transgene expression, nearly all of the heterozygotes (S/s), i.e., the largest segment of the pest population carrying a resistance allele, will be killed before maturation, thus preventing transmission of the resistance gene to their progeny. Refuges (i. e., fields of nontransgenic plants) adjacent to transgenic fields increases the likelihood that homozygous resistant (s/s) individuals and any surviving heterozygotes will mate with susceptible (S/S) individuals from the refuge, instead of with other individuals carrying the resistance allele. As a result, the resistance gene frequency in the population remains lower.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Complicating factors can affect the success of the high-dose/refuge strategy. For example, if the temperature is not ideal, thermal stress can lower Bt toxin production and leave the plant more susceptible. More importantly, reduced late-season expression has been documented, possibly resulting from DNA methylation of the promoter. The success of the high-dose/refuge strategy has successfully maintained the value of Bt crops. This success has depended on factors independent of management strategy, including low initial resistance allele frequencies, fitness costs associated with resistance, and the abundance of non-Bt host plants outside the refuges.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Companies that produce Bt seed are introducing strains with multiple Bt proteins. Monsanto did this with Bt cotton in India, where the product was rapidly adopted. Monsanto has also; in an attempt to simplify the process of implementing refuges in fields to comply with Insect Resistance Management(IRM) policies and prevent irresponsible planting practices; begun marketing seed bags with a set proportion of refuge (non-transgenic) seeds mixed in with the Bt seeds being sold. Coined "Refuge-In-a-Bag" (RIB), this practice is intended to increase farmer compliance with refuge requirements and reduce additional labor needed at planting from having separate Bt and refuge seed bags on hand. This strategy is likely to reduce the likelihood of Bt-resistance occurring for corn rootworm, but may increase the risk of resistance for lepidopteran corn pests, such as European corn borer. Increased concerns for resistance with seed mixtures include partially resistant larvae on a Bt plant being able to move to a susceptible plant to survive or cross pollination of refuge pollen on to Bt plants that can lower the amount of Bt expressed in kernels for ear feeding insects.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Best management practices (BMPs) to control weeds may help delay resistance. BMPs include applying multiple herbicides with different modes of action, rotating crops, planting weed-free seed, scouting fields routinely, cleaning equipment to reduce the transmission of weeds to other fields, and maintaining field borders. The most widely planted GM crops are designed to tolerate herbicides. By 2006 some weed populations had evolved to tolerate some of the same herbicides. Palmer amaranth is a weed that competes with cotton. A native of the southwestern US, it traveled east and was first found resistant to glyphosate in 2006, less than 10 years after GM cotton was introduced.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Farmers generally use less insecticide when they plant Bt-resistant crops. Insecticide use on corn farms declined from 0.21 pound per planted acre in 1995 to 0.02 pound in 2010. This is consistent with the decline in European corn borer populations as a direct result of Bt corn and cotton. The establishment of minimum refuge requirements helped delay the evolution of Bt resistance. However, resistance appears to be developing to some Bt traits in some areas.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: By leaving at least 30% of crop residue on the soil surface from harvest through planting, conservation tillage reduces soil erosion from wind and water, increases water retention, and reduces soil degradation as well as water and chemical runoff. In addition, conservation tillage reduces the carbon footprint of agriculture. A 2014 review covering 12 states from 1996 to 2006, found that a 1% increase in herbicde-tolerant (HT) soybean adoption leads to a 0.21% increase in conservation tillage and a 0.3% decrease in quality-adjusted herbicide use.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: The regulation of genetic engineering concerns the approaches taken by governments to assess and manage the risks associated with the development and release of genetically modified crops. There are differences in the regulation of GM crops between countries, with some of the most marked differences occurring between the US and Europe. Regulation varies in a given country depending on the intended use of each product. For example, a crop not intended for food use is generally not reviewed by authorities responsible for food safety.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: In 2013, GM crops were planted in 27 countries; 19 were developing countries and 8 were developed countries. 2013 was the second year in which developing countries grew a majority (54%) of the total GM harvest. 18 million farmers grew GM crops; around 90% were small-holding farmers in developing countries.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports every year on the total area of GM crop varieties planted in the United States. According to National Agricultural Statistics Service, the states published in these tables represent 81–86 percent of all corn planted area, 88–90 percent of all soybean planted area, and 81–93 percent of all upland cotton planted area (depending on the year).


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Global estimates are produced by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) and can be found in their annual reports, "Global Status of Commercialized Transgenic Crops".


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Farmers have widely adopted GM technology (see figure). Between 1996 and 2013, the total surface area of land cultivated with GM crops increased by a factor of 100, from to 1,750,000 km (432 million acres). 10% of the world's arable land was planted with GM crops in 2010. As of 2011, 11 different transgenic crops were grown commercially on 395 million acres (160 million hectares) in 29 countries such as the US, Brazil, Argentina, India, Canada, China, Paraguay, Pakistan, South Africa, Uruguay, Bolivia, Australia, Philippines, Myanmar, Burkina Faso, Mexico and Spain. One of the key reasons for this widespread adoption is the perceived economic benefit the technology brings to farmers. For example, the system of planting glyphosate-resistant seed and then applying glyphosate once plants emerged provided farmers with the opportunity to dramatically increase the yield from a given plot of land, since this allowed them to plant rows closer together. Without it, farmers had to plant rows far enough apart to control post-emergent weeds with mechanical tillage. Likewise, using Bt seeds means that farmers do not have to purchase insecticides, and then invest time, fuel, and equipment in applying them. However critics have disputed whether yields are higher and whether chemical use is less, with GM crops. See Genetically modified food controversies article for information.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: In the US, by 2014, 94% of the planted area of soybeans, 96% of cotton and 93% of corn were genetically modified varieties. Genetically modified soybeans carried herbicide-tolerant traits only, but maize and cotton carried both herbicide tolerance and insect protection traits (the latter largely Bt protein). These constitute "input-traits" that are aimed to financially benefit the producers, but may have indirect environmental benefits and cost benefits to consumers. The Grocery Manufacturers of America estimated in 2003 that 70–75% of all processed foods in the U.S. contained a GM ingredient.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Europe grows relatively few genetically engineered crops with the exception of Spain, where one fifth of maize is genetically engineered, and smaller amounts in five other countries. The EU had a 'de facto' ban on the approval of new GM crops, from 1999 until 2004. GM crops are now regulated by the EU. In 2015, genetically engineered crops are banned in 38 countries worldwide, 19 of them in Europe. Developing countries grew 54 percent of genetically engineered crops in 2013.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: In recent years GM crops expanded rapidly in developing countries. In 2013 approximately 18 million farmers grew 54% of worldwide GM crops in developing countries. 2013's largest increase was in Brazil (403,000 km versus 368,000 km in 2012). GM cotton began growing in India in 2002, reaching 110,000 km in 2013.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: According to the 2013 ISAAA brief: "a total of 36 countries (35 + EU-28) have granted regulatory approvals for biotech crops for food and/or feed use and for environmental release or planting since 1994 ... a total of 2,833 regulatory approvals involving 27 GM crops and 336 GM events (NB: an "event" is a specific genetic modification in a specific species) have been issued by authorities, of which 1,321 are for food use (direct use or processing), 918 for feed use (direct use or processing) and 599 for environmental release or planting. Japan has the largest number (198), followed by the U.S.A. (165, not including "stacked" events), Canada (146), Mexico (131), South Korea (103), Australia (93), New Zealand (83), European Union (71 including approvals that have expired or under renewal process), Philippines (68), Taiwan (65), Colombia (59), China (55) and South Africa (52). Maize has the largest number (130 events in 27 countries), followed by cotton (49 events in 22 countries), potato (31 events in 10 countries), canola (30 events in 12 countries) and soybean (27 events in 26 countries).


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Direct genetic engineering has been controversial since its introduction. Most, but not all of the controversies are over GM foods rather than crops per se. GM foods are the subject of protests, vandalism, referendums, legislation, court action and scientific disputes. The controversies involve consumers, biotechnology companies, governmental regulators, non-governmental organizations and scientists.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: Opponents have objected to GM crops on multiple grounds including environmental impacts, food safety, whether GM crops are needed to address food needs, whether they are sufficiently accessible to farmers in developing countries, concerns over subjecting crops to intellectual property law, and on religious grounds. Secondary issues include labeling, the behavior of government regulators, the effects of pesticide use and pesticide tolerance.


title: Genetically modified crops

text: A significant environmental concern about using genetically modified crops is possible cross-breeding with related crops, giving them advantages over naturally occurring varieties. One example is a glyphosate-resistant rice crop that crossbreeds with a weedy relative, giving the weed a competitive advantage. The transgenic hybrid had higher rates of photosynthesis, more shoots and flowers, and more seeds than the non-transgenic hybrids. This demonstrates the possibility of ecosystem damage by GM crop usage.