A measured look at genetic engineering

Here is a piece from Mark Bittman a propos of a recent rider that got signed into law that would partially shield genetically-engineered crops from judicial and USDA oversight.  He gives a measured, polemic-free accounting of what transgenic crops have and have not offered the world in the past twenty years.  The verdict, as I've discussed before, is that as yet transgenics have not compared favorably to conventional breeding in terms of increasing crop yield in return for low research investments.