GM Crops Make Good Neighbors

When scientists in China girded cotton with an insect-killing toxin in the late 1990s, they knew it would be a boon for cotton farmers. But in an unexpected twist, researchers have now found that genetically modified (GM) cotton that produces the natural pesticide casts a protective net over other kinds of crops in nearby fields - and not because introduced genes have spread beyond the cotton field.

The findings, reported in tomorrow's issue of Science and at a press conference here yesterday, "are of major importance," says Huang Jikun, director of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

Science