ABSTRACT
Transgenic plants are now being approved for widespread use in agriculture and as food. The ability to introduce genes directly into plants provides many new opportunities to modify them in novel ways, but also presents new responsibilities to assess their effect on the environment. Biosafety assessment is largely by comparison of the transgenic plant with the non-transgenic plant it was derived from. Assessment procedures have evolved over the past decade, which have been underpinned by a series of studies to make the process more informed. Because we rely largely on our knowledge of classical genetics to inform biosafety assessment, it is important to determine whether transgenes are the same as resident genes in every respect. As there are some differences, it is important to consider the consequences of those differences for influencing biosafety assessments. Some environmental impacts are scale dependent and need to be examined carefully when transgenic plants are in widespread production. There are also several important challenges ahead. International harmonization of biosafety standards is vitally important as we move towards world trade in transgenic plant products. There is a need to consider agricultural strategies for using certain transgenes, such as herbicide tolerance and pest resistance. Much of biosafety assessment focuses on risks to human health and the environment, however, there are important opportunities to use transgenic plants to make a positive benefit to human health and the environment and these should be explored vigorously.
