Plant-based remediation techniques are showing increasing promise for use in soils contaminated with organic and inorganic pollutants. Two contrasting approaches to remediation are being pursued: pollutant-stabilization and containment, where soil conditions and vegetative cover are manipulated to reduce the environmental hazard; and decontamination, where plants and their associated micro flora are used to eliminate the contaminant from the soil. Worldwide, there have been many hundreds of field trials with transgenic crops. Over 38 different crop species have been tested in field experiments in 31 countries since the first trials with tobacco in 1986. Several transgenic plant varieties have been approved for commercial use. Over the past ten years, regulations governing the release of transgenic plants for experimental and commercial purposes have been developed in different countries. There is an active international dialogue with the aim of achieving harmonized, equitable and responsible regulations so that transgenic plants and their products can be transported between countries for research and commerce. Over the next half century, crop production in developing countries must more than double. Plant biotechnology, applied through the international agricultural research system, can help to ensure that the necessary increases in production are achieved, that they are sustainable and that they will benefit the vast majority of food producers and consumers in developing countries with limited purchasing power. The response of plant metabolism to genetic engineering of specific enzymes varies from the predictably obvious to the almost undetectable. This is probably due to the existence of alternative pathways, and to the sharing of control between many of the enzymes of a given pathway. These features of plant metabolism make it difficult to predict how successful attempts to manipulate it will be Nematodes cause annual losses of over US$100 billion to world agriculture. Control measures are inadequate, and are too heavily dependent on environmentally hazardous nematicides. Transgenic-plant technology offers a ‘green’ solution for controlling nematodes; such approaches can be safe for the producer, the consumer and the environment, and can benefit developed and developing countries. This type of approach requires promoters that direct a specific expression pattern for genes encoding effector proteins. Effectors may disrupt modification of the plant cell by the parasite, or act directly against the nematode. Valuable promoters have been identified, and the potential of both effector approaches has been demonstrated.