Food Biotechnology uses modern genetics to do what farmers have been using for years-improve the quality and production of food. Earlier, farmers used crossbreeding to enhance the size, quantity and quality of crops produced by a particular plant. Today, farmers can rely on modern techniques to identify the traits responsible for beneficial features and incorporate them in the new crop. Food biotechnology is a precise science that enables us to find the most beneficial traits, in terms of added nutrition, increased flavour, or greater ability to fight pests or diseases, and incorporate them into various organisms1.
Biotechnology is able to isolate a particular gene (or trait) in one organism, remove it, and then transfer it to another organism, where this same gene replicates itself, creating a stronger and more resilient strain of the same substance. Overall, biotechnology offers numerous opportunities to enhance the quality and variety of foods2.
But some consumers feel uneasy about the possible risks associated with biotechnology, especially when foods have been altered genetically. This highlight presents some of the many issues surrounding genetically engineered foods, and the accompanying glossary defines the terms used3. .
For centuries farmers have been selectively breeding plants and animals to shape the characteristics of their crops and livestock. They have created prettier flowers, hardier vegetables, and leaner animals. Consider the success of selectively breeding corn. Wild, native corn bears only five or six kernels on each small stalk, but many years of patient selective breeding have produced large ears filled with plump kernels aligned in perfect formation, row after row. .
Such genetic improvements, together with the use of irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides, were responsible for over half of the increases in U.S. crop yields in the twentieth century. Farmers still use selective breeding, but now, in the twenty first century, advances in genetic engineering are expected to bring rapid and dramatic changes to agriculture and food production.