ABSTRACT

Biotechnology alters human future in many ways. One is by altering crop species to provide new traits that have been impossible or very slow to produce by conventional breeding. Imparting herbicide resistance to normally herbicide-susceptible crops to produce herbicide-resistant crops (HRCs) has been the most intensively exploited area of plant biotechnology. Weeds are major agricultural pests that can devastate a crop if not properly controlled or managed. Weeds can be managed quickly with one or more applications of an herbicide, and farmer and the farmer's family can then pursue other problems and interests. Plant agricultural biotechnology industry can be divided roughly into that conducted by large companies and corporations, that done by seed companies, and that being done by small venture-capital companies. Herbicides and their breakdown products can be found in soil, groundwater, surface water, and food. Herbicides and their breakdown products that can be identified as synthetic all have environ mental half-lives which vary with their location in environment.