GENETICALLY ENGINEERED CROPS IN THE UNITED STATES - Genetically Engineered Crops in America - page 9

site. 5 Thus, while the number of APHIS notifications and permits peaked in
2002, a more comprehensive measure of the amount of R&D activity in
agricultural biotechnology—the number of authorized sites and authorized
constructs—has increased very rapidly since 2005. For example, while the
number of releases authorized in fiscal year (FY) 2012 was lower than in
FY2005, the number of authorized sites in FY2012 almost doubled those in
FY2005 and the number of constructs increased more than 150-fold (table 1). 6
Table 1. Number of releases, sites, and constructs authorized by APHIS
for evaluation
Releases Authorized sites Authorized constructs
FY2012 767 9,133 469,202
FY2011 967 10,128 395,501
FY2010 754 6,626 297,422
FY2009 846 6,751 217,502
FY2008 948 7,744 125,365
FY2007 1,066 3,623 63,217
FY2006 974 4,327 18,532
FY2005 1011 4,939 3,042
FY2004 997 4,523 2,851
FY2003 824 2,910 2,650
FY2002 1,226 5,111 3,234
FY2001 1,190 5,831 3,208
FY2000 1,002 3,836 3,126
FY1999 1,068 4,134 3,502
FY1998 1,151 4,781 3,830
FY1997 782 3,427 2,650
FY1996 653 2,745 2,305
FY1995 734 3,690 2,666
FY1994 569 1,669 1,926
FY1993 341 455 870
FY1992 164 121 427
FY1991 90 10 226
FY1990 46 14 142
FY1989 32 12 74
A gene construct is the name used for a functional unit necessary for the transfer or the
expression of a gene of interest (http://www.gmo-safety.eu/glossary/667.gene-
construct.html). Typically, a construct comprises the gene or genes of interest, a
marker gene (to facilitate detection inside the plant), and appropriate control
sequences as a single package (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2001).