ARTICLE: Non-GMO Breeding Changes the Makeup of Crops More Than Genetic Engineering

The following is an excerpt of a blog post at the Genetic Literacy Project website summarizing a study comparing genetically engineered corn with traditionally-bred corn.

After more than two decades of research, many published reports and hundreds of regulatory submissions, transgenesis has generally been found to have markedly less effect on crop composition compared with traditional breeding. Advances in molecular biology have shown that the types of mutations that are possible during transgene insertion are similar to those associated with the intentional or unintentional random mutagenesis that occurs during traditional breeding, but that GM techniques typically have a smaller impact due to fewer genetic changes.

While the potential for unintended compositional effects is now known to be markedly lower for GM crops compared with those developed using nonGM breeding techniques, government regulation and data requirements for GM crop composition have increased dramatically over the last 20 years, with a typical study now costing over one million US dollars

Please visit the Genetic Literacy Project website to read the entire post.  

Click here to read the original paper at Plant Biotechnology Journal.