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Genetically modified food (more correctly, genetically engineered food or transgenic food, and often abbreviated as GM, GMF) is any food derived from organisms which had their genomes modified using the technique of recombination. Via DNA recombination, genetic material is isolated from one organism and introduced into another. DNA recombination has the advantages that the source and target organisms need not be sexually compatible and that transfer of genes can be highly specific, unlike conventional breeding, which requires sexual compatibility and results in offspring with a mixture of traits from both parents.

Since the early 2000s, GM has become a subject of intense debate. Current scientific consensus is that GMF is as safe for human consumption as organic food. While nuanced criticism does exist, opponents of GMF have an unfortunate habit of slipping into


rationalwiki.org/wiki/Genetica

RationalWikiGenetically modified foodGenetically modified food (more correctly,[note 1] genetically engineered food or transgenic food, and often abbreviated as GM [genetically modified], GMO [genetically modified organisms],[note 2] and GMF [genetically modified food]) is any food derived from organisms which had their genomes modified using the technique of DNA recombination. Via DNA recombination, genetic material is isolated from one organism and introduced into another. DNA recombination has the advantages that the source and target organisms need not be sexually compatible and that transfer of genes can be highly specific (introducing only a single desired trait), unlike conventional breeding, which requires sexual compatibility and results in offspring with a mixture of traits from both parents.

@RationalWiki

So, maybe you can clarify for me the thing I hear the most...hybridizing, say corn, or apples, but using two different apples or corn stains does or doesn't fall under GMO GMF? They aren't fiddling with the DNA of either parent, or are they?

Clearly, I am not up to date on this, despite in being a news thing for decades.

RationalWiki

@Sfwmson There are some similarities in the ideas but also some differences. For within-species hybridization multiple traits from both strains appear in the hybrid.

For GMO, it is usually a single trait that is extracted from one species which does not appear in any strain of the target species, and is inserted into the target, resulting in an organism that could not appear in nature in any reasonable human timespan through hybridization alone.

An example is golden rice, which is rice that had bacterial and daffodil genes inserted into rice DNA to resulting in rice that produces vitamin A (beta-carotene).


rationalwiki.org/wiki/Golden_R

RationalWikiGolden RiceGolden Rice™ is a biofortified (GMO) variety of rice developed with the intention to produce and accumulate provitamin A (β-carotene) in the grain. According to the World Health Organization (WHO): "The grain known as golden rice was developed with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation and others over several years by Dr. Peter Beyer of the University of Freiburg in Germany and Professor Ingo Potrykus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich (ETH). The technology involves modifying the DNA of the most common rice plant, Oryza sativa, by adding bacterial and daffodil genes to produce rice cells capable of making beta-carotene using certain methods patented by the life sciences company Monsanto."[1] WHO says Monsanto is (or at least was at the time) providing royalty-free licenses to the rice. According to Monsanto: "Golden rice is not a Monsanto project. We supported it early on with the grant of a royalty-free license on the technology we had developed in the lab. Other companies have supported it in the same way. No one is going to make a profit from enriching rice to help poor children."[2]

@RationalWiki

Thank you. I have to local friends, one an environmentalist one a professor of animal science and they used to go round and round. It always seemed to me to be the way you explained it.