What does it mean to be genetically modified?

Driving through corn and soybean fields in Wisconsin, Amanda Maxham, Ph.D, a writer and Research Associate with the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, found herself contemplating what it means to be “genetically modified.” She writes:

Staring out at the farms as we went by, I was also thinking about what it means for a plant or an animal to be called a genetically modified organism (GMO). Much of the corn I saw rushing by was “genetically modified.” Genetic modification generally refers to the technology of inserting, removing, or turning up or down certain genes within the corn plant. Plant scientists have used their understanding of DNA to insert genes into corn that improve it in significant ways, such as making it resistant to insects.

But how different is this “genetic modification” from what mankind has been doing to its food for thousands of years?

Read the full, original story here: “Of cows and corn: What does it mean to be genetically modified? (#GMOMonday)” 

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