This month, which also marks our third anniversary, Nature Reviews Genetics features a special focus on genetic modification (GM). Our focus issue coincides with the results of the public debate on the commercial growing of GM crops in the United Kingdom being delivered to the government. Discussion meetings between the public, scientists and government representatives took place from May to July. During this period, GM has received a large amount of media attention. We have used this opportunity to compile a collection of articles to rationally address some of the most controversial, important and exciting topics that are associated with GM.

The United Kingdom public debate has been an important exercise in communicating science to the general public. On page 819, Rosie Hails and Julian Kinderlerer describe the process and discuss how the results can be extrapolated to science communication in general.

On page 806, Neil Stewart et al. discuss transgene introgression — one of the most hotly debated issues associated with the environmental impact of GM crops. Julian Ma and colleagues focus on 'biopharming' — using plants as factories for the production of pharmaceuticals, which promises to be a cheap and efficient way forward for the drug industry.

But GM is not all about plants. In their Perspective on page 825, John Clark and Bruce Whitelaw explore the future of transgenic livestock.

A new feature — Viewpoint — concludes this month's Perspectives section. In this interview-style piece, you can read the opinions of five representatives from academia, industry and the media from around the world on GM crop-related issues.

As usual, the issue is accompanied by a special web focus that can be found at http://www.nature.com/nrg/focus/gm.