X Crops
Mutants for biotech
No one has ever suffered so much as a cough, sniffle, or stomach ache from eating foods made with ingredients from currently commercialized varieties of biotech crops. Yet anti-biotech activists continue to fret about the possible dangers of such foods. Curiously, they ignore the much less controlled reshuffling of genes that takes place through the more widespread and longstanding practice of mutation breeding.
Mutation breeding involves blasting seeds and buds with gamma radiation. Breeders then plant the irradiated seeds and wait to see what (if anything) comes up. If an interesting characteristic emerges, they begin the process of commercializing it. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization lists thousands of crop varieties that have been created this way during the last eight decades, including various kinds of rice, wheat, barley, pears, peas, cotton, peppermint, sunflowers, peanuts, grapefruit, sesame, bananas, cassava, and sorghum.
No regulatory authority oversees this process of wholesale genetic mutation. If anti-biotech activists are so afraid of genetic changes in their foods, why aren't they out protesting varieties produced by means of random mutation breeding? After all, most new biotech crops merely have different agronomic characteristics, whereas many irradiated varieties have different nutritional profiles.
One possible factor: Mutation breeding has a solid record of 80 years of safety. But that leaves the question of why the more precise methods of modern gene splicing should give them pause.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
kxhg