Adding Some Clarity to the Misleading Claim that “All Food is Genetically Modified”

The following debate originally took place here, upon the Facebook page, “FEE“…

(replies from all third parties have been omitted for clarity)

2016-08-04-adding-some-clarity-to-the-misleading-claim-that-all-food-is-genetically-modified

FEE: All Food Is Genetically Modified. Now We’re Just Better at It.
https://fee.org/articles/all-food-is-genetically-modified-now-were-just-doing-it-better/

Rayn: LOL! Sure! We’ve been splicing plant genes with that of bacteria and insects since the dawn of humanity! *facepalm*

Scott S.: Nature has been. It’s called horizontal gene transfer- take a biology course.

Rayn: LOL. Thanks for the condescending “advice,” but I majored in biology at Stonybrook University. Before that, I went to Clara Barton High School for Health Professions, where I scored a 92 on the Biology Regents Test – the highest in my entire school.

Horizontal gene transfer is a nature-guided process of evolutionary adaptation, most common to *single-celled organisms*. It typically involves the transfer of only a tiny fractions of genetic material at a time while single-celled organisms interact with their environment. This process isn’t even REMOTELY similar to *human-directed* gene-splicing of *large sections* of *highly complex organisms,* such as plants, with the DNA of other *highly complex organisms,* such as insects, nor even with single-celled soil bacteria.

Jamie M.: They used chemicals and radiation instead.