How Long Has America Been Using Genetically Engineered Food?

Genetically Engineered Food has been available in America since 1990. The Company Genentech had by 1978 developed a strain of E.coli that was capable of producing the human protein insulin. The Asilomar Conference was also held in the American state of California. The conference was held due to concerns regarding genetic engineering in 1975. The first commercially grown genetically grown crop was the Tomato cultivated by a California Company.

The tomato was submitted by the Company for health testing in 1992 and was available commercially by 1994. Since then genetically modified crops that were subsequently developed were insect protected cotton and herbicide tolerant soybeans. Other GM crops include insect protected maize and herbicide tolerant cotton, maize, rapeseed varieties. Several concerns have been raised on ethical, religious and health grounds from time to time about the correctness of genetically playing with nature.