Challenging Fear-and-Smear Campaign Against GMO Crops

It’s been said before but is worth repeating: Humans have been modifying the DNA of our food for thousands of years. It’s called … agriculture. Early farmers, >10,000 years ago), used selective breeding to guide DNA changes in crops to better suit their needs. Approximately a hundred years ago plant breeders began using harsh chemicals and/or radiation to create random mutations in the DNA of crop plants to, for example, turn bitter grapefruits into a sweet varietal. These mutagens caused innumerable changes to the DNA, none of which was characterized or examined for safety. Problems were rare, similar to what we see in conventional, pre-mutagenesis breeding. Today more than half of all food crops have mutagenesis breeding as part of their pedigree.