> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.investigatemidwest.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# GRAPHIC: Most corn planted in the US is engineered to resist herbicides and kill insects
- URL: https://www.investigatemidwest.org/graphic-most-corn-planted-in-the-us-is-engineered-to-resist-herbicides-and-kill-insects/
- Published: 2024-06-18T20:00:02.000Z
- Updated: 2024-06-18T20:00:02.000Z
- Description: The shift for corn to be protected from both herbicides and insects has largely taken place in the past 20 years.
- Author: Evy Lewis, Investigate Midwest
- Tags: Agribusiness, Data Harvest, Corn, TP::Explainer, herbicide, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-06-18 04:56

Nearly all of the corn grown in the United States is from genetically engineered seeds designed to resist both bugs and herbicides, a shift that has largely taken place in the past 20 years.

Genetically engineered seeds most commonly fall into two broad categories: herbicide-tolerant and insect-resistant. Herbicide-tolerant varieties are engineered to resist specific herbicides, such as glyphosate and dicamba, while insect-resistant varieties contain a gene from the soil bacterium *Bacillus thuringiensis*, which produces a protein that kills insects.

Stacked gene plant varieties contain both of these traits, and now represent more than 80% of all corn grown in the United States.

Genetically engineered produce first reached consumers in the 1990s, [though most corn now is used for ethanol or alcohol](https://www.investigatemidwest.org/graphic-a-third-of-u-s-corn-is-used-to-produce-ethanol/). In 2000, genetically modified seeds represented only a quarter of the corn planted nationwide, and the majority of genetically engineered corn seeds were simply insect-resistant. In the two decades since, they’ve come to dominate the industry, driven largely by the rise of stacked gene varieties.