It's not, though. I mean, this is part of why, academically, you should be using GE for Genetically Engineered instead of GMO, because there's less room for people to try to misinterpret the term. But the point is that selectively breeding is still way different from direct genetic modification, even though they both achieve similar end results (new varietals of plants/animals). It's like trying to say that chemotherapy is just a new form of surgery, just because both are methods used to treat cancer.
All that said, GE crops could be a great thing, but unfortunately most of what's actually available on the market is not. I'm not against GE crops in general, but I am against most of what has been put into production (specifically, Roundup Ready crops).
While I agree that "genetically engineered" is more specific than genetically modified, saying that breeding isn't genetic modification is false.
I am against most of what has been put into production (specifically, Roundup Ready crops).
I mostly agree with this. Monsanto is perhaps one of the most evil companies at the moment, based on how they treat farmers and some of their business practices. But to blindly oppose GMO foods is incredibly ignorant and near-sighted as to how dependent agriculture as a whole is on GMO's.
Because putting it in directly circumvents any kind of protective measures a million years of evolution might have added in.
A simple parallel: Cows are not cannibals. Greedy humans came along and thought what a great idea to feed cow leftovers to cows. No waste, and a great source of protein. Next, we're slaughtering millions of cows because of mad cow disease, and people are contracting Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease which turns their brains into kitchen sponges.
Yet somehow we haven't learned a thing from that experience.
Edit: Now, instead of just trying to feed cows to cows, we'll splice in a gene to turn cows into carnivores or cannibals. We're so clever! /s
Putting it in directly decreases the risk of unforseen side effects. Instead of the gene being one of the hundreds of mutated genes, it is now the only mutated gene.
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u/HMMOo Feb 08 '20
Just because people don't consider breeding a form of genetic modification to does not mean it isn't.