On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 11:39 AM, Cameron Childress <camer...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 2:34 PM, Judah McAuley <ju...@wiredotter.com> wrote: >> Right now we don't have a massive food crisis on our planet. > > This is, in great part, due to genetically modified breeds of plants.
Not really, no. Arguably the biggest contribution to increased yields and disease resistence is the development of multiline varieties along with heavy artificial selection to target certain characteristics. Take a look at the work of Norman Borlaug and his development of multi-variety dwarf wheat for an example. This sort of work does produce a considerably wide variation in genetics, so in that sense you could say it is "genetically modified" but anything undergoing directional selection is then "genetically modified". And, more to the point regarding "frankenfood" it is utterly different than something like Bt which takes protein-encoding genes from a bacteria and melds it into the proteome of corn. This, more properly, is known as being transgenic and is what people generally mean when they refer to "genetically modified" food. Judah ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:315684 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
