In theory, disease could also spread if the animal microbes pass their drug-resistant genes to human bacterial strains.

BBC: Animals and antibiotics: the risks

They worry that pesticide-resistant genes may spread from plants that should be saved to weeds that have to be killed.

ECONOMIST: Who��s afraid?

The company's scientists perfected a system in 1996 for injecting genes into seeds that are resistant to the herbicide Roundup.

CNN: Monsanto court victory could have big impact on biotech

Its scientists have perfected a system for injecting genes into seeds that are resistant to the equally popular herbicide Roundup, allowing farmers to plant them with reduced risk of weeds, insects, and disease.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

We can take the genes from fish that make them resistant to cold and insert them into a strawberry that will then grow better in cold conditions.

BBC: The power of genes

Herbicide tolerant crops are made resistant to a proprietary weedkiller, while Bt crops include genes that produce an insect-killing toxin.

BBC: UK urged to lead on future food

The ministry would also like to oversee a wider distribution of genes from the small percentage of British rams that are resistant to scrapie, a sheep disease similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease as it is more commonly known.

ECONOMIST: The search for long-lived sheep sperm

Longevity genes appear to slow down the aging process by making cells and tissues more stress-resistant, better able to withstand the inevitable environmental insults that accumulate over a lifetime from bad diet, inflammation, radiation, genetic mutations and toxic chemical by-products called free radicals.

FORBES: Researchers are unlocking the mysteries of aging.

Such sterile fields will offer little or no food or shelter to wildlife, and there is already evidence that the genes for herbicide resistance can spread to wild relatives of crop plants, leaving us with weeds resistant to weedkiller.

BBC: Prince Charles speaks out against GM food