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NE ND | GMO is not just the application of pesticides, it's modifying the gene structure of a living thing.
Take a NATURALLY grown wheat that is native to a dry area, lets say Arizona for example. This wheat variety, let's call it Variety A, grows better in a dry climate (lets call this drought resistance). Variety A yields, lets say 25 bushel/ac, but it grows very well in a hot, dry climate, but has no resistance to scab because it's so dry there is no need for head blight resistance. Now lets say we have someone who is also growing wheat in North Dakota, we'll call this Variety B. North Dakota can be dry or it can bet wet, but not nearly as dry as Arizona. He can grow a decent wheat crop with some moisture, but on a dry year, it suffers.....BUT because it's a more moist climate, the wheat NATURALLY has resistance to scab. Lets say he makes 50 bushel/ac on a normal growing season.
Now if we take both A & B wheat varieties (that have never been sprayed with any sort of pesticide), and take the "drought resistant" gene from Variety A, put in into Variety B, and the "scab resistant" gene from Variety B and put it into Variety A.....guess what?! PRESTO, we now have "GMO" wheat! Why? The gene structure has been "genetically engineered" to be both drought and scab resistant. Now lets say that the guy in Arizona has an abnormally wet year, instead of having 15 bushel wheat because of head scab, they can now grow 40 bushel wheat. And the guy up in North Dakota who had an abnormally dry year, still makes 45 bushel wheat because of the "drought resistant" gene that was bred into Variety B.
EVEN THOUGH NO PESTICIDES WERE SPRAYED ON THIS WHEAT, IT'S STILL CONSIDERED GMO.
I'm 100% on-board with finding a way to spray less pesticides and still producing enough food for the world, but by being "anti-GMO" is not the way to go about it. We'd be going backwards at least 50 years.
Too bad the general public doesn't understand this.
Edited by gthompson97 4/18/2015 22:40
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What benefits for the consumer does production ag's GMO are there
