Much of the push to commercialize the first generation of genetically engineered crops has come from large companies in the United States and Western Europe. But the next big producers of biotech crops could very well be nations in the developing world. While battles over genetically modified foods have slowed the technology's progress in Europe and North America, countries such as China and India are now gearing up to commercialize dozens of genetically modified plants in the next few years (see "Eating the Genes,").

The first such plants hit the market in the mid-1990s, and last year 13 nations allowed them to be grown commercially. Of those, five are in the developing world: Argentina, China, Mexico, South Africa and Uruguay. In fact, China and Argentina now rank among the top four growers, alongside the United States and Canada, in number of hectares planted.