the International Service for the Acquisition of Agribiotech Applications estimates that since GMO crops were introduced in the 1990s, 1 billion acres worldwide have been planted with these plants. That’s an area larger than the continental United States. Soy, corn and cotton (our food frequently has cottonseed oil added to it) have been genetically engineered to contain toxic pesticides and to withstand massive amounts of herbicides applied to farm fields. This allows GMO crops to survive and be harvested, while weeds are supposed to wither and die. Of course, other beneficial living things — most especially pollinators like honeybees, butterflies and a wide collection of other wildlife and fish — also perish from pesticide exposure. And the pesticides often persist long enough to poison our water and air