Not sure what this is trying to say, but this seems to conflate genetic modification with selective breeding!
Selective breeding is a form of genetic modification. That’s what it’s trying to say.
By the individual definitions of the words, yes. However in actual use, genetically modified means modification through direct methods such as chemical agents, enzymes, or electroporation.
Edit:
This isn’t my opinion. Here is an article in Nature: https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/genetically-modified-organisms-gmos-transgenic-crops-and-732/
You can selectively breed rabbits for 1000 years and not get a glow in the dark rabbit that can be made in a week in a lab.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/13/glow-in-dark-rabbits-scientists
Sure, but you could selectively breed rabbits for 1,000,000 years and get a glow in the dark rabbit; GFP is just a protein like any other - if you painstakingly selectively breed for a specific DNA sequence, you’ll eventually get it regardless of your starting genetic pool. Classic selective breeding is a form of genetic modification - modern genetic modification methods are just way faster.
I agree that we don’t currently know enough about genetics to utilize genetic modification without unforeseen side effects, and so there should be limitations on what we’re able to genetically modify until we can show that we understand it well enough to meaningfully minimize potential issues, but those same issues occur with selective breeding - they’re, again, just slower.
This message brought to you by the Monsanto and Unit 731 gang.
Monsanto creates GMOs based on nothing but greed - they have complete disregard for the environmental impact of the wanton use of pesticides that their resistant strains encourage. But that’s just one GMO application - other crops use genetic modification to produce greater yields or better nutritional value.
Golden rice is a great GMO that can bring vitamin C and other essential nutrients to previously-deficient areas of the world, but it keeps getting delayed and disrupted by people who think that the reason Monsanto is terrible is because they make GMO’s, rather than their sketchy business and science practices they use. GMO’s as a whole are neutral, and there are amazing benefits we can get from them if we understand the difference between good and bad use of genetic modification.
OP’s post points out that beneficial old-fashioned GMO creation through use of selective breeding has immensely improved agricultural yield from the original source - the process of using our own observations to modify organisms on a genetic level is not new, and without it, we wouldn’t be where we are now as a species.
The origin of GMOs trace directly back to Shiro Ishii and Unit 731 (Imperial Japan’s war crime squad). They did a bunch of other weird shit besides poisoning people. Particularly, they developed dawrf species of wheat so they could soak up a shit ton of chem fertilizers without getting too tall and falling over. This is the genesis of modern GMOs, and if we didn’t Papercliptm Ishii, things would be very different right now.
GMO’s trace back further than that - even when we’re specifically talking about modern methods. The first Drosophila melanogaster fruit fly genetics experiments happened in 1910, though it took a while for us to begin actually creating GMO strains; the first study I know of that did so was in 1927 by Hermann J. Muller, using x-rays to purposefully induce mutations. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter who was the first to purposefully modify the genetics of an organism, modern or otherwise.
The fact of the matter is that we can use, have used, and should use genetic modification for beneficial purposes. Again, GMO’s are neutral; it just means an organism was purposefully modified on a genetic level by humans - it’s the purpose itself that determines whether its good or bad. People will use it for bad reasons just like any technology, and we should stop them, but that doesn’t mean we should shun the technology itself when genetic modifications have been used beneficially for millennia, and modern techniques are just as capable of producing incredibly beneficial changes as they are the detrimental ones everyone’s scared of.
EDIT: OP cleared up the confusion, thanks for that I … what? This is such a gigantic leap, going from Teosinte to modern day mazie and calling it a GMO, what is it even suppoed to mean? We shouldn’t use domesticated plant? I am seriously scared by the lack of what I consider to be general knowledge of breeding in the general population, have people stopped going to school in the last 5 years?
Well golly gee, I guess that means GMO crops that are bred to survive glyphosate and other pesticides must be the same thing then!
All I see here is an attempt to amalgamate GMO’s and selective breeding to manipulate public perception… which leads to higher profits.
Well, alright thanks for clearing that up. I understand the meme now, although I still struggle with the … unusual use of terminology. But yes, it very much makes sense to show teosinte then!
the problem isn’t that GMOs exist it’s that all GMOs that exist are either sprayed with 10x pesticide or are GM’d to make their own super potent pesticide
Golden rice does neither of these two things. Not that the facts matter when it comes to our irrational fear of gmos.
It’s widespread adoption, almost certainly resulting in the unnecessary suffering of millions of people, has been hampered by anti-scienitific fanatics. So let’s not confuse that with there being something wrong with golden rice or it not existing.
But if that isn’t enough, we have fast growing salmon, non browning apples, and pink pineapple which are all gmos on the market that don’t have to do with pesticides or pest resistance. If we include ones that are simply resistant to viruses, then the list grows substantially more.
Do people use breed and generically modify interchangeably? Are they actually the same
We get to choose the genes when genetically modifying, and it usually takes a few years (plus health metrics and research once complete).
Contrary, when selectively breeding we can breed for traits which we are not guaranteed to actually get, and it takes a few decades (plus health metrics and research once complete).
when selectively breeding we can breed for traits which we are not guaranteed to actually get, and it takes a few decades (plus health metrics and research once complete).
Nobody will make you confirm your randomly bred variant is actually healthy, or even non-harmful, and you can sell it without publishing a thing.
Gmos go through far more rigorous testing requirements than new organisms created by traditional means. you’ve got it completely backwards.
