MEDICAL biotechnology may have its troubles, but at least most
people favour developing new treatments and methods of
diagnosis. Agricultural biotechnology is not so fortunate.
Between 1995 and 1998, the area planted with genetically
modified crops expanded from nothing to some 30m hectares,
mostly in North America. Nobody noticed. Then, after a pointless
experiment that involved feeding rats with potatoes modified to
produce a poison, parts of Europe developed mass hysteria. In
some countries, foodstuffs containing GM ingredients became
almost unsaleable.  Matters were made worse by the publication
soon afterwards of the results of another experiment, in which
pollen from GM maize was fed to caterpillars of the monarch
butterfly. The “transgene” that had been introduced was for a
natural insecticide called bt, and many of the caterpillars
died. In the eyes of some (who conveniently forgot to ask what
the effect of the insecticidal spray that bt replaces would have
been), this suggested GM crops damaged the e