Benefits, Potential Risks and Environmental Safety Assessments of Herbicide-resistant Transgenic Soybean

Herbicide-resistant transgenic soybean was rapidly and commercially utilized in the world since 1996, and the planted percentage was up to 77% in 2009. Although multiple benefits have achieved through transgenic soybean utilization, the potential risk to environment is widely being concerned. It is essential to reduce the environmental risks for transgenic soybean and for other similar transgenic crops by using available biosafty knowledge to establish the risk assessment system. This review emphasized the herbicide-resistant transgenic soybean production, research and development, benefits and potential risks, and environment risk assessing methods for giving advisory opinion to commercially plant herbicide-resistant transgenic soybean in China.