Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer discover recombinant DNA technology in the 1970s, making it possible to isolate individual genes, alter them, and copy them in cells, opening up vast commercial possibilities (Genetic). The first genetically altered whole food, Calgene's Flav'r Sav'r Tomatoes, began to be commercially marketed in 1994. Since then the growth in the number and range of genetically modified products has been explosive. .
Scientists have developed a number of techniques for getting a desired gene into a plant. One technique makes use of a soil bacterium, Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The BBC News explains that this microbe, nicknamed the " first genetic engineer", has the ability to insert sections of DNA into plants. The bacterium naturally does this to force the plants to produce the particular chemicals it needs to survive. Scientists have been able to use that ability to deliver genes of their choice into plants. Biolistics is another technique used in the laboratory to create genetic modifications. In simple terms, this technique involves using "a gun to fire the desired gene into a plant's cells."" The DNA to be added is carried on tiny pieces of gold that are shot in through the cell wall. The plant is supposed to receive the DNA and start to read out its instructions, but this technique is often a matter of chance. Another method relies on protoplasts, plant cells which have had their tough walls removed, making it easier for foreign DNA to access to the cell interior. Each these methods depends on the fact that most plants can be regenerated from single cells or small pieces of plant tissue, allowing for successful variations that can be multiplied very quickly ("Food-). .
Today, it is estimated by the Organic Consumers Association at Purefood.org that nearly two-thirds of the products on American supermarket shelves contain some genetically modified ingredients.