**2. Agronomic impact of genetically modified soybean**

Genetic engineering has been widely applied to agriculture to obtain specific plant characteristics which can lead to an improvement in both food quality and yield. Compared with traditional plant breeding methods, such as artificial crossing or hybridization, biotechnology now allows for the introduction of DNA from outside the plant kingdom. Selective inclusion of single or multiple traits can be performed to change the quality of agricultural crops. According to statistics released by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA, 2010), the area of planted transgenic crops was 148 million hectares in 2010, a approximately 87-fold increase from the 1996 level (1.7 million hectares of biotech crops). The number of countries adopting biotech crop cultivation has increased crops consistently from 6 in 1996 to 29 in 2010. The Unites States (US), followed by Brazil, Argentina, India, Canada, and China continued to be the principal adopters of biotech crops globally, with 66.8 million hectares planted in the US.

The majority of genetically modified (GM) crops currently produced have been engineered to enhance agronomic performance by transformation with genes encoding herbicide tolerance or pest resistance. From the first commercialization of biotech crops in 1996, to 2010 herbicide tolerance has consistently been the dominant trait. In 2010, herbicide tolerance deployed in soybean, corn, canola, cotton, sugarbeet and alfalfa, occupied 61% or 89.3 million hectares of the global biotech area. In 2010, the stacked double and triple traits occupied a larger area (22% or 32.3 million hectares) than insect resistant varieties (26.3 million hectares) at 17%. The insect resistance trait products were the fastest growing trait group between 2009 and 2010 at 21% growth, compared with 13% for stacked traits and 7% for herbicide tolerance.

Biotech herbicide tolerant soybean continued to be the principal biotech crop in 2010, occupying 73.3 million hectares or 50% of global biotech area, followed by biotech corn (46.8 million hectares at 31%), biotech cotton (21.0 million hectares at 14%) and biotech canola (7.0 million hectares at 5%) of the global biotech crop area.

Current researches suggest that the passage of plant DNA fragments across the intestinal barrier is a natural event, as demonstrated by the detection of endogenous, high copy number chloroplast genes from plants in several animal tissues and products. Low copy endogenous and transgenic DNA in animal tissues have been detected but to a lesser extent

For several years, no direct evidence that GM food may represent a possible danger for health has been reported and the scientific literature in this field is still quite poor, especially as to the possible effect of a diet involving a significant amount of GM plants. More recently, a number of papers have been published and controversial results have been obtained. However, some have found significant modifications in some nuclear features in mice fed GM soybean and, more recently, it has been reported that the activity of some enzymes was altered in rabbit and goats fed GM soybean, as confirmed also by histochemistry which showed a widespread distribution of enzyme activity in myocytes, myocardiocytes, epithelial cells of renal tubules and hepatocytes. These observations suggest that the risk of genetically modified crops cannot be ignored and requires further investigations in order to identify possible long-term effects of GM plants on both livestock and human consumption. The main focus of this chapter concerns the genetically engineered soybean, its effects on human and animal health, the productivity of this GM crop and the outcome for

Genetic engineering has been widely applied to agriculture to obtain specific plant characteristics which can lead to an improvement in both food quality and yield. Compared with traditional plant breeding methods, such as artificial crossing or hybridization, biotechnology now allows for the introduction of DNA from outside the plant kingdom. Selective inclusion of single or multiple traits can be performed to change the quality of agricultural crops. According to statistics released by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA, 2010), the area of planted transgenic crops was 148 million hectares in 2010, a approximately 87-fold increase from the 1996 level (1.7 million hectares of biotech crops). The number of countries adopting biotech crop cultivation has increased crops consistently from 6 in 1996 to 29 in 2010. The Unites States (US), followed by Brazil, Argentina, India, Canada, and China continued to be the principal

The majority of genetically modified (GM) crops currently produced have been engineered to enhance agronomic performance by transformation with genes encoding herbicide tolerance or pest resistance. From the first commercialization of biotech crops in 1996, to 2010 herbicide tolerance has consistently been the dominant trait. In 2010, herbicide tolerance deployed in soybean, corn, canola, cotton, sugarbeet and alfalfa, occupied 61% or 89.3 million hectares of the global biotech area. In 2010, the stacked double and triple traits occupied a larger area (22% or 32.3 million hectares) than insect resistant varieties (26.3 million hectares) at 17%. The insect resistance trait products were the fastest growing trait group between 2009 and 2010 at 21% growth, compared with 13% for stacked traits and 7%

Biotech herbicide tolerant soybean continued to be the principal biotech crop in 2010, occupying 73.3 million hectares or 50% of global biotech area, followed by biotech corn (46.8 million hectares at 31%), biotech cotton (21.0 million hectares at 14%) and biotech canola (7.0

adopters of biotech crops globally, with 66.8 million hectares planted in the US.

**2. Agronomic impact of genetically modified soybean** 

than high copy genes.

environment.

for herbicide tolerance.

million hectares at 5%) of the global biotech crop area.

Farm animals are currently fed soybean and soybean meal developed from genetic transformation as well as corn and corn products such as corn gluten feed and meal. Europe is strongly dependent upon the American continent for its protein requirements amounting up to 90 to 95% for soybean, 40 to 60% for corn derivatives and partly for canola grain or meal (Aumaitre, 2004).
