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By manipulating the genetic make-up of plants and animals, genes from one species can be artificially inserted into another, unrelated one.
This is supposed to give genetically engineered (GE) organisms new abilities - such as maize that produces its own pesticide - which will be disease and drought resistant as well as being able to provide more food for the world's poor.
At least, that's the theory, but after decades of research there are no GE food crops that live up to all this hype.
Instead, the use of herbicides has increased and a wealth of contamination scandals (in which non-GE crops become polluted with GE material) have erupted.
On top of that, farmers who were supposed to reap the benefits of GM technology are instead facing financial ruin and starvation.
Corporate interests
The multinational biotech companies such as Monsanto and Bayer Cropscience, who develop GM crops, own the rights to the varieties they develop, increasing their stranglehold on global agriculture and allowing them to generate vast profits.
They make even more money by making their crops resistant to just one brand of herbicide - their own.
As a result, the production of our food is governed by economic models rather than natural ones, and bodies such as the World Trade Organisation, the European Commission and several national governments are keen to force GE products on the global market.
An international agreement called the Biosafety Protocol aims to regulate the use and movement of genetically modified organisms, but again biotech companies and governments sympathetic to their interests are attempting to disable it, making the familiar argument that environmental protection is a barrier to international trade.
Contamination scandals
Once GE crops are planted, cross-pollination means other crops often become contaminated and GE material ends up in the food chain.
Contamination scandals are now commonplace, often originating from farm trials in which the GM crops are unapproved for human consumption.
Indeed, in 2009 Greenpeace China discovered GE papayas being grown on Hainan Island.
The only place in China GE papayas are illegally allowed to be commercially grown is in Guangdong province.
GE organisms are also a serious threat to biodiversity.
Designed to grow faster and stronger, they out-compete native varieties and, again, cross-pollination (which its supporters insisted was impossible) could result in their genetic material spreading far and wide, potentially altering entire species.
Once they make it out into the wild, there is no way to recall them and we will have to live with the consequences.
