Don't you wish you could be the one to identify the next significant trend in bioengineering and write about it brilliantly in a really hip magazine? Forget it! Dick Manning is miles ahead of us all. "The new-and-improved flavor of gene science," this highly readable magazine piece announces, "is Earth-friendly and all-natural. Welcome to the golden age of smart breeding." Manning's point is that the first-generation technology of genetic modification (which brought us Flavr Savr tomatoes and Roundup-ready ® soy) may have already found its high-water-mark on the steep shore of consumer acceptance ... or reluctance. "Europe has all but outlawed transgenic crops," Manning writes, "prompting a global trade war that's costing US farmers billions in lost exports. In March, voters in Mendocino County, California, banned GMO farming within county lines." Enter Smart Breeding. "Researchers are beginning to understand plants so precisely that they no longer need transgenics to achieve traits like drought resistance, durability, or increased nutritional value," reports Manning. "Over the past decade, scientists have discovered that our crops are chock-full of dormant characteristics. Rather than inserting, say, a bacteria gene to ward off pests, it's often possible to simply turn on a plant's innate ability." (See target="_window" href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.05/food.html">inhttp://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.05/food.html.)