What you are talking about is artificial selection, not genetic modification. I saw you also mentioned cross-breeding, which is also not genetic modification. Look it up please.
Artificial Selection is the process of farmers choosing the ideal plants from their crops, to use those seeds for the next generation so that the next batch of crops is bigger, meatier, better producing, more weather-resistant, etc. That is called artificial selection, as farmers are 'artificially selecting' which crops will reproduce. (in contrast to natural selection, in which nature does the selecting.)
they select the plants with the most desirable genes and breed them…producing plants with modified genes. any form of breeding or selection is an attempt to produce a new plant (or set of plants) with a more desirable set of genes…modifying the genes of what you started out with.
what you are concerned about is genetic engineering…which is a much more precise form of genetic modification than traditional methods (crossbreeding, selection, etc.). granted, you're not the only one that's confused…but hey, such is life.
Dear Nod,
you are WRONG.
artificial selection is NOT the same thing as genetic modification / genetic engineering of food. look it up bro… please!
artificial selection does not involve direct modification of the genes of an organism.
Genetic modification / genetic engineering = directly modifying the genes of an organism by inserting gene sequences into or deleting gene sequences from the genome. It occurs in a laboratory!
Artificial Selection = selecting which plants or animals will survive to reproduce (e.g. selective dog breeding, or planting seeds from only the biggest and best crops you had the previous year) so that the next batch is more desirable. sure, their genes are indirectly changing over time, but not because someone is directly modifying the DNA, and definitely not because certain genes were inserted or deleted from the genome. there are no gene sequences deleted or inserted in artificial selection. It does NOT occur in a laboratory!
Genetic modification / engineering = directly inserting new genes into or deleting existing genes from a genome. Occurs in a lab.
Artifiical selection does NOT involve either of those processes, and does NOT occur in a lab.
go ahead and keep on thinking that you're right about these biological concepts… but im the one with the B.S. Biology major 🙂 any scientist that knows a thing or two about genetic modification and artificial selection will set you straight on this information, as i have.
simply do a search on google… anyone can do it…
search: 'genetically modified food'
vs.
search: 'artificial selection'
…and you will see that even the internet can tell the difference, lol
the fact that you are trying to tell me I am wrong about something that is easily provable by doing a google search is rather alarming… just look it up whenever you are ready to find out the truth. 🙂
I will not continue to reply if there is no intelligent discussion happening. Scatter was the last person who made an intelligent post.
It's sad that it has come to this point, where you are denying the proper definitions of biological terms in the face of a biologist, but at least I have tried to help you see the correct definitions of the terms and concepts.
I have done my part in trying to help you be more accurate in your understanding of these biological concepts, but with little or no success…
…so this thread is done in my opinion 😀 ;D
Keep posting all you want, but until there is an intelligent comment that is worthy of a reply, I will just sit back and enjoy the entertainment.
I hope you can find the strength to swallow your pride and admit when you are wrong, as I did when I publicly posted that radical Brother Nathanael article to seek opinions, when I should have kept that to private conversations. 8)
Take care Don,
-Abe
P.S. – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food vs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_selection
