So far in this series of issue papers, we have mainly covered topics relating to the biotech crops already grown and traded commercially. Now we are going to look into the future; not just at a vision of what might happen many years down the road, but also at developments further along the pipeline, some of which could be a commercial reality within five years.

That biotechnology has great potential in agriculture is clear. In this paper, we will give a snapshot survey of new applications, ranging from those which might soon be submitted for marketing approval to those still being worked on in universities. There is a range of developments, some from the companies who are members of ABE, some from other smaller companies, and some developed in public institutions. They have two things in common: real definable benefits, and demonstrated feasibility.

Already, crop biotechnology benefits society by allowing farmers to grow high quality food more efficiently, with more consistent yield and with reduced environmental impact. What we will show in this paper is that there are a large number of beneficial applications still in development. Some of these would be difficult to achieve using available "conventional" breeding techniques, others would be impossible to accomplish in any way other than genetic modification. As with any development process, not all of these will come to fruition, but we believe many will.

Whatever the situation regarding approval of new products in Europe, many of these crops will be grown in other parts of the world. Some of the produce will undoubtedly then be imported into the EU, following regulatory approval. We hope that we Europeans will also have the opportunity to benefit more directly by allowing our own farmers the choice to grow such crops.