What are the differences between using traditional methods of artificial selection and using various transgenic methods of altering crops?

Answer 1

Good question, and it has tremendous impact.

Artificial selection is choosing only certain plants that have desirable traits to reproduce. It relies on the traits and genes that the plant already has, and tries to reinforce them.

The hope is that if you only reproduce the plants with desirable traits, after many generations, that trait will be greatly enriched in your plant.

This is how crops were first domesticated, and how they were altered for thousands of years. Artificial selection is also how the many different breeds of dogs have developed.

Transgenic methods involve actually adding new genes, or genes from different plants/animals/bacteria into a crop. It requires much more than just selective breeding. It requires the genetic engineering of new plants, which is done in a lab, and involves the manipulation of the plant's DNA.

This process is how people have developed versions of corn that are resistant to plant killers (so now farmers can spray Roundup plant killer on a field of corn, and kill everything except for the corn).

Although the process is not dangerous on its own, there are some concern that the newly added genes can transfer to other plants as well, though after over ten years in public use and over a billion acres grown, there is still no proof of it.