It has been 13 years since during the 15th Miami Winter Symposium the successful transformation of tobacco was announced. This date serves as a convenient milestone for the beginning of the age of agricultural biotechnology. The date is comparable to 1903 when the Wright brothers flew an airplane on the beaches of North Carolina or 1879 when Edison created the first successful light bulb. By 2003, when this technology has its 20th birthday, most of the corn, soybeans, cotton, tomatoes, potatoes and canola in North America will be genetically engineered. The traits will range from herbicide tolerance, insect and disease resistance to improvements in quality, and the improvements will serve to decrease farmer inputs, increase yields and improve the quality of our food and fiber. The new products will shift pesticide use toward cheaper, safer, more efficacious compounds and will result in less fuel use and decreased chemical volumes. And it will not stop there.. . The impact of the technology is accelerating at an astonishing pace. While the first-generation impact will likely be in crops, biologicals and novel pesticides, the next wave of products will include genetically modified microbes, along with novel, mode-of-action plant chemicals co-developed through traditional and biotechnology-based technologies. Improved germplasm is being developed at a faster and more efficient pace through marker-assisted breeding. Finally, a third wave of products are beginning to emerge as the technology is applied to enhancing the genetic base of farm animals. These were the messages delivered by university professors and industrial scientists at the IBC World Summit on Agricultural Biotechnology ‘96 held on March 4-5 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.