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In a way, the old science-fiction movies were right. Genetically engineered crops have taken over the world – but not because mutant plants went on a rampage.

Fifteen years after the biotech revolution first hit rural America, farmers overwhelmingly choose to grow genetically modified (GM) varieties of corn and soybeans. In Minnesota this year, a record 95 percent of the soybeans are GM varieties. For corn, it’s 93 percent. A similar trend is unfolding around the world.

“Everybody thinks it’s just a U.S. thing, and that’s far from the case now,” said David Morgan, president of Syngenta Seeds, which has its U.S. headquarters in Minnetonka. “With the exception of Europe, it’s pretty well adopted around the world.”

More than 80 percent of the world’s soybeans are GM varieties, industry data show. So is nearly two-thirds of the world’s cotton. That brisk adoption rate is welcomed by developers of biotech seeds, including Syngenta, which ranks No. 3 behind Monsanto and Pioneer.

And what has all this genetic engineering wrought? The debate continues, but so far, the scorecard includes:

Crop yields are up. The food supply remains safe. Consumers have grown more accepting of – or at least more indifferent to – genetically modified crops. And opponents remain.

“The good news is that there have been no serious environmental impacts – certainly no catastrophes – associated with the use of engineered crops in the United States,” wrote two biotech experts with Advertisement the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Of course, that does not mean that one can conclude that there have been no environmental effects.”