Biotechnology is the use of living organisms to develop products or processes. It has applications in green, red, white, and blue biotechnology as well as bioinformatics. Green biotechnology applies to agricultural processes like selecting domesticated plants through micropropagation or designing transgenic plants. Genetically modified plants are used in agriculture to introduce new traits like pest or disease resistance. Genetically modified foods are produced through genetic engineering to modify traits and some examples include corn modified to resist herbicides or express proteins toxic to insects.

1. What's a biotechnology?
Biotechnology is the use of living systems and organisms to develop or make products, or "any technological
application that uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or
processes for specific use" (UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Art. 2)
Biotechnology has applications in fuor major industrial areas:
- Green biotechnology is biotechnology applied to agricultural processes
- Red biotechnology is applied to medical processes
- White biotechnology is biotechnology applied to industrial processes
- Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field which addresses biological problems using computational
techniques
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2. Green biotechnology
Green biotechnology is biotechnology applied to agricultural processes.
- An example would be the selection and domestication of plants via
micropropagation.
- Another example is the designing of transgenic plants to grow under specific
environments in the presence (or absence) of chemicals.
One hope is that green biotechnology might produce more environmentally
friendly solutions than traditional industrial agriculture.

3. Agricolture
Plants are genetic modified food used in agriculture, the DNA of which
has been modified with genetic engineering techniques.
In most cases the aim is :
- to introduce a new trait to the plant which does not occur naturally in
the species;
- to create resistance to certain pests, diseases, stressful
environmental conditions, resistance to chemical treatments,
reduction of spoilage, or improving the nutrient profile of the plant.

4. Genetically modified food
or GM foods
Genetically modified food are food produced from organisms that have
had specific changes introduced into their DNA with the methods of
genetic engineering.
Some history
Human genetic manipulation of food began with the
domestication of plants and animals through artificial selection
in the ancient times. The process of selective breeding, in
which organisms with desired traits (and thus with the desired
genes) are used to breed the next generation and organisms
lacking the trait are not bred, is a precursor to the modern
concept of genetic modification. With the discovery of DNA in
the early 1900s and various advancements in genetic
techniques through the 1970s, it became possible to directly
alter the DNA and genes within food.

5. Genetically modified maize (corn)
Corn used for food and ethanol
has been genetically modified to
tolerate various herbicides and
to express a protein (from
Bacillus thuringiensis) that kills
certain insects.
Corn can be processed into
grits, meal and flour as an
ingredient in pancakes,
muffins, doughnuts, breadings
and batters, as well as baby
foods, meat products, cereals
and some fermented products

6. Other examples:
Golden rice Canola
Cotton
Blue
tomatoes