We can't truly avoid genetically modified organisms
Scientifically, all life started from a primordial source from which there has been the growth and speciation to the present day superb populations. The continuity of form is carried inside an organism's cell's nucleus that contains chromosomes whose strands hold the genes, the blueprint of inheritance.
More basic life forms like bacteria and some fungi reproduce by any one of the cells budding and/or fission into two repeatedly. Higher life forms however, undergo sexual reproduction process where a female cell (ovum) is fertilised by a male cell (sperm). The ovum and the sperm are formed in specialised reproductive tissues in a meiotic cell division process that halves the number of chromosomes in a cell that splits into two, and the whole number of chromosomes is only reconstituted once the nuclei of the ovum and the sperm fuse again. The resultant cell then undergoes mitotic cell division and cell specialisation to form different tissues and organs that comprise the organism.
Growth and development involve synthesis of tissues and organs, or the protein synthesis that is directed from the genetic material inherited from parent(s). As a consequence, even a cloned animal or a tissue-cultured plant will contain some cells that have a different genetic material sequence from what it received. Therefore, higher plants and animals have an even higher probability of containing genes with even greater variability. This can be best shown in differing environments, as whatever is outwardly phenotypic of an organism is a product of its genetic code and the environmental conditions it lives in.
The Mendelian genetics have shown the variability in cross-pollinated crop properties between parent lines and their seedlings (F1= filia one). The emergence of variegated plants and petals of different colour other than that of parent lines has helped expound on the inheritance of genes, some of which express themselves while others are suppressed. Man has, over time, perfected the qualities of crops with focussed selection and breeding of certain varieties. It is therefore right to say that unless one eats teosinte, any other form of corn/maize eaten is a genetically modified variety; and there have been so many varieties and lines bred for protein quality/content, stress tolerance, weed resistance, maturation time, disease resistance, frost resistance, lodging resistance, etc. Tomatoes, too, have been bred either for salads or for cooking, apples for frost-resistance or sugar content, while tangerine is a cross between orange and lemon. More recently, a non-tear inducing onion variety has been "developed."
Animals, too, have been selected and bred for specific qualities that appeal to man. Pedigree pets, especially dogs, have been "designer made" to fit personal tastes although all dogs are "just but wolves." Super-cows have been bred in 200-year old lineages to produce milk of a certain fat content for a specified length of time between calving. These animals are further fed on foodstuff that has been selected and bred to provide specified nutritional contents- therefore a genetically modified ration.
Prince Charles has recently echoed his perpetual concerns that genetically modified organisms are the ruin of the earth. The Soil Association is strongly behind him, as are many campaigners (Friends of the Earth, Natural Law Party of the United Kingdom, organic crops farmers) against GM foods. The mood of most Britons is that GM foods are not good for them, and it is understandable seeing the scare of the bovine spongioform encephalitis (BSE) that afflicted cattle and led to the dreaded CJD in a few people.
This is a serious misconception that needs to be addressed fast. All protein forms on earth, be they animal or plant, are constituted on a combination of the same basic twenty amino acids. Active genetic engineering that targets identified genes only purposely modifies them with knowledge that the outcome will be a species/variety that will be more adapted to a prevailing condition. This is only a speeded process of what happens in nature, and that's why there are thousands of mutant cells and organs (as in cancer), individuals (as in albinism and dwarfism), and species (pedigree dogs?). Cross-pollination is natural, just like natural selection and survival of the fittest in a hostile environment. The assumption that some organically grown crop is "nothing but organic" is wishful thinking as most certainly no one tests the soil to determine whether the nitrates and ammonium ions taken up by the crop are animal or plant sourced. And the fact that many farms apply animal manure to fields makes it imperative that water seepage takes the sewage to crop fields and the hungry plants thrive on sewage nutrients.
The fear that poor African farmers will be condemned to a prison of "terminator gene" seeds has yet to be proven that the harvested grain will not germinate. Farmers are quite enterprising and would be trusted to come up with innovations that might surprise scientists. Similarly, worries of super-weeds might bring species to help combat desertification. Businesses and space technology are venturing in every unknown dimension, why not in biotechnology then?
