History of the Soybean
The soybean originated in East Asia and was greatly important to its agriculture. In Asia, the soybean was considered as one of the 5 sacred plants; the other 4 were rice, wheat, barley and millet. During the 20th century the soybean was spread throughout the world, since before then it was only confined to Asia.
In 1997, the genetic modification of the soybean began; about 3% of all of the soybeans in the United States were genetically modified. In 2010, it raised to 93%. By genetically modifying this and several other types of crops, the United States found that the amount of pesticides went down throughout these years (1997-2010). Throughout the years the estimated benefits of the genetically modified soybean is 310 million dollars, which was mainly experienced by the companies, which sold the seeds, biotechnology companies and the farmers. |