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Doug Freyburger · 24-02-2011, 07:23 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible

wrote:

Just continue the point I was trying to make,
when plant breeders select one plant because it has a desirable
trait, for example, it grows faster, what they are really doing
is genetically modifying the plant. The offspring will contain
the desirable gene.

This has been going on for thousands of years with plants and
animals.

In the selective breeding case the genetic diversity slowly goes down.
Eventually the population is suseptible to attack because it lacks
diversity. Problems of recessive genes previously not expressed often
enough to detect start becoming more common.

That down side is why new blood is mixed into crops and herds every so
often. With careful study a new trait can be added by breeding in a
distant cousin that has the gene then culling for most of the previous
state plus that one new traits.

GMO speeds up the process because scientists use recombinant DNA
technology which actually extracts genes from one species and
inserts those genes into another species.

But in this case the new blood is not a different strain of the same
species or at least genus but many orders removed.

So "normal" breeding relies on randomly occurring change and
GMO speeds up the process by picking specific changes.

The depends on if you count added new blood as normal and if you count a
beefalo as an expected product.

The way the public reacts to this is that they see a Frankenstein
in the making. Fortunately, scientists recognize the danger
and take steps to minimize the problem. The same danger is present
with "normal" breeding. It's just a matter of degree.

Much of the scare about GMO organisms is irrational. It does have a
part that is rational that gives power to the irrational part. In that
it is much like the anti-nuke movement. The vast majority is irrational
powered by a small kernel of valid objections.