How Does Agricultural Biotechnology Differ from Conventional Plant Breeding?
Both biotechnology and conventional plant breeding share the same goal of increasing the desirable characteristics of that plant, such as increasing the nutritional value of rice. However, biotechnology is much more precise in that it carefully selects a specific gene or trait in one plant (or another source) and transfers only that gene to another plant. Conventional plant breeding on the other hand pools all the characteristics of both parental plants, with the hopes of finding the desired traits in the new genetic lines. In fact, essentially all foods are derived from plants that have been previously genetically modified through conventional plant breeding. Consequently, while both processes result in genetic modification, agricultural biotechnology is a much more precise means of producing the desired characteristic in a plant. A final difference between biotechnology and conventional breeding is that biotech allows scientists to transfer genes across species – including from anima
