The article was about how we have changed food plants mostly via selective breeding (and grafting), so my point on fertility was in regard to the crop. Cavendish bananas are a good example of selective breeding gone wrong, and eliminating seeds in citrus fruits is also problematic.
GMO from a human health point of view is entirely different issue, and I agree that it is poorly understood as far as long term effects. They also need to do better to quarantine the GMO from the possibility of cross-breeding before long term studies are completed.
At the same time climate change is an issue which is where GMO could have value such as making some crops more resistant to drought or frost as our weather patterns become more variable and bioregions shift. While this may require venturing outside of a genus which is the limit of where you can go with breeding/grafting you're not going to be venturing too far. Personally I do disagree with GMO programs such as herbicide resistance as that's something else again.
Maybe GMO should be something left to Government approval and funding where short-term profit making doesn't play into how soon a new plant variety is released?
And for better transparency we treat each GMO not as a variety but as a new breed with a new name?
I was going to post a couple of old articles as background to my various dot points, and found this from last week which covers most of the debate and quite a bit more. Also has up-to-date information on where Government regulation is at. Quite a good article.
GMO from a human health point of view is entirely different issue, and I agree that it is poorly understood as far as long term effects. They also need to do better to quarantine the GMO from the possibility of cross-breeding before long term studies are completed.
At the same time climate change is an issue which is where GMO could have value such as making some crops more resistant to drought or frost as our weather patterns become more variable and bioregions shift. While this may require venturing outside of a genus which is the limit of where you can go with breeding/grafting you're not going to be venturing too far. Personally I do disagree with GMO programs such as herbicide resistance as that's something else again.
Maybe GMO should be something left to Government approval and funding where short-term profit making doesn't play into how soon a new plant variety is released?
And for better transparency we treat each GMO not as a variety but as a new breed with a new name?