The United States has covered over 90% of its soybean, cotton, and corn acreage with genetically-engineered (GE) varieties since 2013. Just don't confuse that for stagnation.

If current trends hold, then GE soybean (96%) and GE corn (94%) will reach a record share of acreage in the United States in 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Coverage of GE cotton is expected to be two ticks lower than its record 98% set in 2019. But not all genetic traits are created equal.

• Herbicide tolerant (HT) traits allow plants to withstand the application of herbicides, such as glyphosate and dicamba. Although the usage of certain herbicides is controversial, the introduction of HT traits across major agricultural crops significantly reduced the volume and toxicity of herbicides applied to farmland.
• Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) traits allow plants to produce a naturally-occurring insecticidal protein, which greatly reduces the application of secondary insecticides.

Whereas cotton and corn benefit from both HT and Bt traits, soybean only has HT varieties available. Adoption curves have differed by crop and trait, but have one common driver: the introduction of stacked traits. A stacked trait means farmers benefit from both HT and Bt traits in the same seed.