| Plant species have been improved ever
since people stayed in one place and began planting seeds. Slowly,
they selected the best varieties from wild plants which were barely
edible:- carrots, parsnip, grass seeds of barley, wheat, oats types,
fruits. Slowly, they saved and re-planted the seeds from the plants
with the best taste, or biggest seeds, or that grew best in a dry
year. Gradually, our species improved.
Most of the last century has also seen moderately slow improvement
- selection of better pest resistance, breeding plants which respond
better to chemical fertilisers, breeding temperate species for
sub-tropical conditions (e.g. apples can now be grown in most
countries). This has all been done by pollinating one plant with
another, or by grafting a bud onto a better root stock, in ways
that are by now traditional.
However, in the last 10 to 15 years, there has been a great step
forward with the possibility of direct genetic manipulation. The
genetic code has been dismantled, and it is possible to take a
chunk of genetic material from one species and transplant it into
another, so that one plant acquires characteristics from another,
for example, total resistance to a disease, or total resistance
to a particular chemical, or drought resistance.
Current Situation. Genetic manipulation is claimed to
give miraculous results, however, there are powerful lobbies against
it - mostly campaigning on the basis that nature forms a fragile
network - if, for example, the pollen from maize is altered, then
the butterflies and insects that feed on it may either be altered
or not be able to digest it, and starve, and this will cause further
effects that are entirely unpredictable. One English newspaper
called them 'Frankenstein foods', because nobody knows what will
happen. Field trials are being done, but there is some evidence
that modified genetic material is escaping into 'the wild' and
affecting other species. The 'network of nature' is so large and
complex that it is alsmost impossible to predict the consequences
of such an 'escape' of altered materials (and perhaps it always
will be)
|