While selective breeding has been around basically forever, one of the more recent "old methods" to be used was forcing mutation[1]. This involved liberal use o

While selective breeding has been around basically forever, one of the more recent "old methods" to be used was forcing mutation[1]. This involved liberal use of fun things like ethyl methanesulfonate or dimethyl sulfate. When the "atomic" craze happened, using cobalt-60 as a gamma source became popular. What a lot of "anti-GMO" people seem to be missing is that the modern techniques are far less radical and significantly more controlled. At least now we can track the changes we make, which are limited in scope. Nothing is perfect, but I find small, tracked changes far more reassuring than randomly blasting plants with mutagens until you find something interesting. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation_breeding http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation_breeding ... wow - that wiki page has an interesting claim about "some" so-called "certified orgainc" growers: "...several organic food and seed companies promote and sell certified organic products that were developed using both chemical and nuclear mutagenesis. Several certified organic brands, whose companies support strict labeling or outright bans on GMO-crops, market their use of branded wheat and other varietal strains which were derived from mutagenic processes without any reference to this genetic manipulation..."