Did you know that for the last 100 years, we have been taking seeds and then irradiating them with mutagenic electromagnetic radiation to try and induce mutations that are beneficial to us? In fact, a a good number of the groundbreaking varieties of rice and wheat that made the green revolution possible in the 1960s were products of this process. We literally changed the DNA of an existing organism, but fun fact: those foods are not considered GMO. Why? Well,almost every thing we eat today has been the product of either irradiation, hybridisation or artificial selection, so what gives?
Turns out that these three older methods of genetic modification are inefficient and slow. It takes centuries to get artificial selection to do what you want it to do. It takes decades for hybridisation to yield a variety that has the characteristics you want. Irradiation is largely a lottery. Most mutations result in unviable offspring. But in the 1970s, we figured out a way to take bits of DNA from other organisms (typically bacteria or fungi) and introduce them to plants to give them features we want, like pest or drought resistance. Only THIS method is called GMO. And it is precise and fast.
Another fun fact: Without precise GMO technologies, we wouldn’t have affordable insulin, which is now produced by a yeast that has been genetically modified.
That said, business models around GMO crops have had ethical issues. From Terminator seeds to the use of glyphosate weed killers, there are moral and ethical considerations that we all need to think about.
But remember that technologies are tools. How we use them is up to us, and honestly, without GMO crops, I don’t think humanity will survive climate change
