Breeding technique allows farmers to conventionally breed plants based on genetic markers; GMOs are unnecessary, costly, dangerous and now obsolete

Wednesday, May 11, 2016
By Paul Martin

by: David Gutierrez
NaturalNews.com
Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Advances in conventional breeding techniques have now rendered genetic engineering obsolete, according to a report authored by independent scientist Benno Vogel and published by Greenpeace. Indeed, the conventional breeding technique known as marker-assisted selection (MAS) allows farmers to rapidly develop new strains of important crops, without the high costs or dangers of genetic engineering.

Genetic engineering, which produces genetically modified organisms (GMOs), consists of using biotechnology techniques to alter the DNA of organisms. In contrast, MAS uses biotechnology only to identify genetic markers linked to traits that farmers find desirable, such as pest or drought resistance. Armed with this more specific information about a plant’s genetics, farmers are able to use conventional breeding techniques to produce new strains much more rapidly — and much more quickly and effectively than can be delivered by genetic engineering.

More successful than GMOs

In the short time since its development, MAS has already delivered remarkable successes leading to real-world benefits in food production. For example, the Greenpeace report cites the use of MAS to develop new strains of rice that are resistant to bacterial leaf blight, a major threat to irrigated and rain-fed rice crops in China, India and Indonesia. MAS has also been used to nearly eliminate rice blast in Korea and Thailand, which formerly led to the loss of up to 30 percent of the annual harvest.

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