After a lethal plant virus swept through this field trial in Tha Pra, Thailand, the GM papaya trees on the right stood hearty, while the conventional trees on the left fell sickly and fruitless. The virus, called ringspot, has decimated nearly all of Thailand's papaya, a staple food that many Thai people eat three times a day.

Thai researchers in 2004 were seeking regulatory approval for this biotech papaya when their government abruptly banned all GM crops and ordered every field trial destroyed. All that's left of this research site are a few seeds that Thai scientists stashed in a refrigerator.