Haven’t we been genetically modifying plants and animals for thousands of years?
The industry likes to say this in order to confuse people. The fact is that traditional breeding and hybridization are completely different to genetic engineering (also called genetic modification). In traditional breeding it is possible to cross a rose with another rose to get a new variety, but it is not possible to cross a rose with a potato or a mouse. Even when species that may seem to be closely related do succeed in breeding, the offspring are usually infertile—a horse, for example, can mate with a donkey, but the offspring (a mule) is sterile. Genetic Engineering or genetic modification, on the other hand, refers to a new set of molecular techniques that have only really been developed over the last 20 or 30 years. (The first ever field-testing of a genetically engineered plant was in 1983). With these molecular techniques, scientists are able to take DNA from any species – bacteria, viruses, insects, animals or even humans, and engineer them into another organism.
The industry likes to say this in order to confuse people. The fact is that traditional breeding and hybridization are completely different to genetic engineering (also called genetic modification). In traditional breeding it is possible to cross a rose with another rose to get a new variety, but it is not possible to cross a rose with a potato or a mouse. Even when species that may seem to be closely related do succeed in breeding, the offspring are usually infertile—a horse, for example, can mate with a donkey, but the offspring (a mule) is sterile. Genetic Engineering or genetic modification, on the other hand, refers to a new set of molecular techniques that have only really been developed over the last 20 or 30 years. (The first ever field-testing of a genetically engineered plant was in 1983). With these molecular techniques, scientists are able to take DNA from any species – bacteria, viruses, insects, animals or even humans, and engineer them into another organism. • Example: B
