Search for land mines eased

From Chemical & Engineering News, February 16, 2004 (www.cen-online.org):
"Aresa, a small biotechnology company in Copenhagen, has genetically engineered plants to turn red when their roots contact explosives in the soil."
Paraphrasing--the method, tested only in the lab so far, would involve spraying modified seeds over an area to be tested. The testers would then wait a few weeks and look for places where plants are coming up red (indicating mine locations).
The plant being used is from the mustard family and lacks a gene needed to make a red pigment. The Aresa workers gave the plant "substitute copies of the red-making gene, linked to genetic material that would permit it to work only in the presence of the nitrogen dioxide released when land mines break down." The plants have also been modified to prevent them from spreading in the wild.

According to the C&EN article, this development was also reported by Rick Weiss in the Feb. 2 Washington Post.

I found this fascinating. Do you think this technique will "catch on", or are concerns about GM crops likely to prevent its adoption into practice?