Comfortable with the idea of biofuel corn, but find the concept of biofuel algae, with its need for temperature and pH-controlled growing conditions, a little far-fetched? Fear not—genetically-modified food crops are combining centuries of selective breeding with the cutting-edge technology of genetic engineering.

The problems with traditional biofuels are obvious.  Chief among them: the fact that converting plant sugars to ethanol takes a lot of energy. Some plants already create oils that can easily be converted to work with the existing energy infrastructure, but these oils are mostly in seeds—meaning that a lot of plant material is being grown that yields no energy—and these plants don’t tend to fare well in cold winters.

The solution offered by food crops is similar to that offered by algae: insert genes to create these fantastic plant oils into an organism that already grows efficiently and reliably, and harvest it as a fuel without the inefficiencies of ethanol conversion.

While the oily food crops' underdevelopment could provide a power source from the same arable lands farmers have relied on for centuries, it is still paramount that they remain carefully managed, cut off from other food crop operations. If accidental interbreeding with wild or foodcrop plants occurs, the environmental results could be devastating.