When the egg is fertilised and the new cow grows up, and if the scientist has found a way to make sure the gene is switched on in the cow's coat - she will be purple. The American biotechnology giant Monsanto has over the course of the last 15 years, modified several popular crop plants to make them resistant to it's herbicide Roundup. This has obviously meant a huge increase in markets and sales. Other crops which have been modified include tomatoes where the ripening process is lengthened so that they can be transported longer distances. That said, it is worth noting that GM food is only one of a number of food technologies that come under the under the general heading of biotechnology.
Cloning is another.
The cloning of Dolly the sheep caused massive media interest. More recently the same team of scientists have cloned a monkey - several countries including Japan and Britain now have legal bans on human cloning, which is probably already scientifically quite feasible. Before looking at GE in the context of the economics of capitalism I will try to look at the technology per se. In answering this it needs to be borne in mind that those who advocate GE claim a wide number of benefits on its behalf. Though some of these claims are wild and off the mark, there are undoubtedly some real benefits to be achieved through this new technology.