Anti-GM protesters kept from tearing up wheat crop by police

[yellowcanine]

51. Not really selection vs injection.

All plant breeding involves selection of one sort or another. The trick is to get new genes/traits to work with. In traditional plant breeding this was done by making controlled crosses followed by selection and then often more crosses known as backcrosses until the desired gene had been introduced into the selection and the selection was genetically stable. With GMO what is different is that techniques are used which allow a wider selection of genes to be introduced. The traditional GMO technique involved using a "vector", such as certain kinds of bacteria or viruses. Now indeed microinjection techniques are used. The GMO techniques greatly speed up plant breeding because it is much easier to introduce single genes into plants and thus many of the selection and backcrossing steps are eliminated, but not entirely. And of course it is possible to introduce genes from organisms which would not naturally cross. However, in terms of safety GMO actually has some advantages. Because it is so much easier to introduce single genes, there is actually a lower probability of introducing "bad" genes into varieties and the genetics of the new variety is much better understood.