This process is very slow. In the Neolithic Age, it took thousands of years to domesticate a wild plant. 17 19, British botanist fairchild invented a method of creating new crop varieties-hybrid breeding, which hybridized different varieties of crops and cultivated varieties with good quality in future generations. At the beginning of the 20th century, the establishment of genetics provided a theoretical basis for crop breeding, and botanists used cross breeding methods to create many new varieties with great practical value in agricultural production. These new varieties are unknown in nature.
"The safety of genetically modified food has not yet been determined", which is a common statement in the media. This statement is not accurate. International authoritative organizations unanimously agree that genetically modified foods currently approved for marketing are safe. In 2002, some governments in southern Africa consulted the United Nations on the safety of genetically modified foods. On August 27th, the United Nations issued a statement saying: "According to information sources from various countries and existing scientific knowledge, FAO, WHO and WFP believe that eating food containing genetically modified ingredients as food aid for southern Africa is unlikely to pose a risk to human health. So these foods are edible. These organizations confirmed that no scientific literature was found to show that eating these foods has a negative impact on human health. " In the question and answer about genetically modified foods, the World Health Organization pointed out: "Genetically modified foods currently sold in the international market have passed the risk assessment and are unlikely to pose a risk to human health. Moreover, among the general population in the approved countries, it has not been found that eating these foods will affect human health. "
At present, the accusations and worries about genetically modified crops and genetically modified foods are actually social panic caused by the deliberate misleading of some extremist organizations and the lack of biological knowledge of the general public. There is not much scientific content in the debate around it, so it is hard to be called a scientific debate.
In fact, genetically modified foods that have been marketed are not only safe, but also often safer than similar non-genetically modified foods. Planting insect-resistant transgenic crops can reduce or eliminate pesticide pollution to food, and as we all know, high pesticide residue has always been a major problem in food safety. Disease-resistant transgenic crops can resist bacterial infection, thus reducing the content of bacterial toxins in food. Excessive use of chemical pesticides is the main factor that destroys the environment at present. Popularizing insect-resistant transgenic crops can greatly reduce or even avoid the use of chemical pesticides, which not only reduces the pollution of pesticides to the environment, but also reduces the raw materials, energy and waste discharged from pesticide production, transportation and spraying. On April 29th, 2005, Science magazine published the paper "The Impact of Transgenic Insect-resistant Rice on Rice Production and Farmers' Health in China", pointing out that the yield of transgenic insect-resistant rice increased by 6% compared with that of non-transgenic rice, and the application amount of pesticides decreased by 80%, which saved considerable expenses and reduced the adverse effects of pesticides on farmers' health. About 50,000 farmers are poisoned by pesticides every year in China, and about 500 of them die.
The article comes from the Science Park.