Page 56 - RealDirtENG2020

Soybeans
Common question: GMOs
More than 10,000 years ago, the earliest plant breeders were knowingly and unknowingly selecting plants for propagation that had desirable traits, including a shorter growing season, higher yields, and larger seeds or fruits.
Conventional plant breeding is a very long and expensive process that involves crossbreeding two plants, growing new plants from the seeds produced, and painstakingly selecting the offspring with the desired combination of traits—over, and over, and over again. It can take many years to get the right combination of traits, and for new varieties to become available.
What’s a GMO?
GMO stands for genetically modi ed organism. It’s a term that technically could be applied to almost all plant-based food we eat today, as they’ve all been modi ed over time, but when people talk about GMOs, they’re most often referring to genetic engineering.
Genetic engineering is a form of biotechnology in which laboratory methods bring together genetic material from multiple sources—a form of genetic recombination. What distinguishes genetic engineering from conventional breeding is the use of recombinant DNA technology.
Here is an example: a gene from another species is added to a crop’s DNA to make it more functional, such as corn that produces a toxin that is lethal to certain crop-killing bugs—meaning that farmers can reduce their insecticide use130.
Melinda Baarda
One form of genetic modi cation can result in “silencing” or turning off speci c genes already inside a plant, which can be accomplished through a technique called RNA interference (RNAi)131. For example, the genes that cause bruising in the Innate® potato, and browning in the Arctic® Apple, have been turned off, which ultimately means that less food is wasted.
QUICK
FACT
Apples are one of the most wasted food products on the planet—about 40 per cent are thrown out, much of it because they turn brown once they’re cut, bitten or bruised. Arctic® Apples (which were created in Canada) won’t do that because, with the help of genetic engineering, the enzyme that causes the browning has been turned off132.
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The Real Dirt on Farming
Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc.