On January 29, 2000, over 130 countries adopted the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity (Biosafety Protocol or Protocol).¹ The Protocol establishes international procedures applicable to the transboundary movement of bioengineered living organisms (referred to in the Protocol as living modified organisms (LMOs)). The adoption of the Protocol marked the close of over four years of intensive, contentious, and often emotional negotiations regarding the multibillion-dollar trade in bioengineered organisms.

Human beings have genetically modified plants and animals through domestication and controlled breeding for some 10,000 years with little controversy.² Since 1973, however, modern biotechnology techniques have enabled the transfer of genes from one species to another unrelated species.³ For example, genes from a flounder known to survive in frigid waters have been transferred to tomatoes to make them resistant to frost⁴; and genes from a natural soil bacterium (bacillus thuringiensis) have been transferred to potatoes and corn to make them resistant to certain insects.⁵