Non-GMO Plant Breeding Techniques :: Food Agriculture Science Papers

Non-GMO Plant Breeding TechniquesWorks Cited MissingIntroductionIn 1997 genetically modified foods were introduced to commercial agriculture in the form of weedkiller resistant soybean seed (Farnham, Wang, and Wisner 2000). The seven years since have label a major change in the way hoi polloi global look at food and its production. It has become an important issue for utmostmers, consumers, the government and world economies, as the safety and ethics of GMOs are debated. In receipt to the use of GMOs, and the overall distrust many consumers have toward them, there has been an volley in the marketing of organic foods. All this talk about genetically modified foods and the increasing popularity of organic foods brings to the forefront an important question. How much do we know about the production of non-GMO/organic tames and can it be considered safer and much ethically sound in comparison to GMO plant production? diachronic Plant ProductionThroughout history crop producti on has been an current process of altering the genotype of plants to improve their yield. It has been traditional for farmers after each season to harvest seeds from the plants that appear phenotypically superior, saving them to be planted the succeeding(a) season. After thousands of years of doing this food crops today are a far cry from the wild lineages they were derived from (Chrispeels and Sadava pg331). While wild lineages have undergone centuries upon centuries of natural alternative producing successive generations of offspring adapted to the environment, domesticated species have undergone the pressures of return extract. This results in observable contrasts between domesticated plants and their wild relatives. Todays crop plants have no natural seed dispersal mechanisms, nor seed quiescence periods to overcome seasonal weather conditions. Crop plants have been bred for similar ontogeny habits so that at the time of harvest they are of uniform formula and size (K imball, 2000). This is the reason for example that we do not see shrubby corn or viney wheat varieties. Congruency of this type among crop species has made it easier for farmers to capture universal harvest mechanisms. Gigantism is the term given to the huge difference in the size of the fruiting bodies of crop plants versus wild relatives, which is due to the selection of the seed from parent plants that produce large fruits (Chrispeels and Sadava pg342). In the 1700s people began to cross plants with the intention of making crop plant varieties superior to those in existence, as opposed to the traditional and more passive method of hand picking seeds from superior plants.