“Civilization rests on people’s ability to modify plants to make them more suitable as food, feed and fiber plants and all of these modifications are genetic” (American Association 1). This quote from the article “Statement by the AAAS Board of Directors On Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods” expresses that fact that humans have used the favorable genes of plants since the days of Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics. When plants exhibited a desirable trait, they were bred together so that more of the offspring would have that trait. Genetic Modification is manipulating the genome of the plant, but humans have been doing that for years. Modifying the genes is a more precise way to do this. Genetic Modification improves food and is safe.
Genetic modification is a scientific way to enhance crops. The article “Genetically Modified Food” explains this by saying; “A genetically modified (GM) food is a result of recombinant DNA biotechnological procedures that allow the genetic Makeup of an organism to be modified. This can be accomplished by incorporating genes from other organisms of by rearranging genes already present” (Schneider 1). The genes used in the GM plants either comes from other plants of the plant itself. This means nothing going into the plant is from an unnatural source. “Statement by the AAAS Board of Directors On Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods” says, “Modern molecular genetics and the invention of large- scale DNA sequencing methods have fueled rapid advances in our knowledge of how genes work and what they do, permitting the development of new methods that allow the very precise addition of useful traits to crops…” (American Association 1). In traditional breeding there is a guess and check mentality where plants with advantageous traits are bred together and it is only known if the resulted offspring has that trait when it grows enough to express it. The scientific advancements in genetics can isolate the one gene that causes a characteristic to make the process of making better crops more exact. Genetic modification is a way to better food, and there are many clear benefits from it.
Genetic modification offers many valuable things to consumers of plants and producers of plants. For example, “Questions & Answers on Food from Genetically Engineered Plants” says that, “Developers genetically engineer plants for many of the same reasons that traditional breeding is used, such as resistance to insect damage, hardiness or enhanced nutrition” (U.S. Food and Drug Administration 2). The goals of genetic engineering and traditional breeding are very similar. They both want the plants to be improved for everyone. The article, “Genetically Modified Food” talks about positive things that can come from modifying the genes of plant including, “Delayed-ripening tomatoes; pest-resistant crops, such as virus-resistant squash and Colorado potato beetle-resistant potato; herbicide-tolerant crops, such as...
