Genetically Modified Foods x Hybrids Foods 🥊
GMO, an abbreviation for genetically modified organisms. For thousands of years, humans have used traditional modification methods like selective and cross-breeding to cultivate plants and animals with more desirable traits. This is referred to as hybridization.
Hybrids are plants that have been selected to be cross-bred by a person under controlled substances to produce a seed with certain valuable traits that can be used to grow new plants. For example two seeds And B may have individual unique features such as seed A being disease resistant while seed B is capable of growing in hot environmental conditions. Both seeds can be cross pollinated to obtain a seed C that has both features. Seed C can then be planted. Hybridization can be summarized to involve speeding up natural selection in order to get desirable traits such as;
i. Durability
ii. Production yield
iii. Size of food/ vegetables
iv. Improved taste
Hybridization has been in existence for over 10,000 years.
Hybridization can also happen naturally, for instance bananas are a hybrid food. It should be noted that hybrid foods don’t use Genetically Modified Organisms(GMO) technology, instead hybrids use traditional pollination that naturally occurs in nature with controlled pollination techniques that gives fruits and foods uniform sizes and shapes and other features such as juiciness 🧃, improved taste and better nutrition. A hybrid is created when two different varieties or types of a fruit or vegetable are cross breed to create new varieties. Examples include seedless apples, varieties of dates and kiwis, seedless pineapples, seedless grapes, seedless citrus fruits, and much more!
Most of the foods we eat today were created through traditional breeding methods. Therefore its appropriate to say that food have been modified since the dawn of time. Transforming plants through traditional breeding can take a long time, and it is difficult to make very specific changes. After scientists developed genetic engineering in the 1970s, they were able to make similar changes faster and smarter. Today most foods we eat have been genetically altered in some manner.
How are GMO’s Made
First — Identify the genetic information or “gene” that gives an organism (plant, animal, or microorganism) a desired trait.
Second — Copy that information from the organism with the trait, inserting that information into the DNA of another organism.
Third — Get to growing the new organism!
A Timeline of Genetic Modification in Agriculture
We don’t really need GMOs but we need to advance sustainable agriculture and there are many important tools that we need, such as ecologically based farming practices and seeds.
Every crop must be analyzed on a case by case basis, whether its genetically engineered or developed through mutagenesis but it has been concluded by the European Food Safety Authority and many other organizations that the process of genetic engineering is no more risky than conventional breeding.
The topic GMO has been politicized making it very difficult for consumers to really access accurate, science-based information and this has led to fear and anxiety and in a large population regarding GMO’s. Hopefully, this has improved tour understanding as a consumer.
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