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Is GMO really any different than selective breeding, which has been going on for 10s of thousands of years, except for the time scale and precision of the chang

Is GMO really any different than selective breeding, which has been going on for 10s of thousands of years, except for the time scale and precision of the changes? Yes, there may be unintended side effects, but that can be true with selective breeding. Look at what we've done to dogs and how some breeds can hardly breath, others are predisposed to hip dysplasia, others yet prone to hearing issues, and we did all of that without genetic engineering.

max76 8y ago
> Is GMO really any different than selective breeding Yes, GMO is very different. 1. GMO crops are genetic clones. We have never experienced such small amounts of genetic diversity in our crops. This creates unique liabilities. 2. Timescales matter. Perhaps skilled breeders could create the exact same genome of a GMO crop we have today in 10,000 years. However the environment will be given much more time between each mutation, and each mutation will take more time before it spreads across the entire population. This gives other forms of life a fighting chance. Ecosystems fail when they are dominated by a single organism. 3. While our yields are much higher today, our farming practices are much less substainable than they were in the past. The types of farming practices GMOs promote are part of the move towards less substainable farming.