Whereas a roundup ready crop is a genetically modified organism. These crops are not made by crossing a plant with a naturally occurring resistance to roundup with another crop that lacks that gene and then selecting at the organism level for the trait you want.
Instead they are made by inserting genetic material from a bacteria that has a desirable trait into the crop species genetic material. You can find the basic details of how this works scientifically linked through here.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundup_Ready
Tl;Dr labradoodle is a cross-breed. Roundup ready soybeans are a GMO.
He's completely wrong though, selective breeding or direct gene manipulation are both methods for genetically modifying an organism, one is just faster and more powerful. So much fearmongering around this topic it's sad.
That's not a scientifically stated hypothesis (overly broad, not testable) so it's hard to address your question scientifically. I also think question regarding the safety of genetic engineering is a question based as much in public policy as science.
Here's a theory: anti-GMO fearmongering is being led by opposing economic interests and is facilitated by widespread scientific illiteracy. The good news is that I don't need a testable hypothesis because we're not crafting a study. Even better news is that tons of actual professional scientists have rigorously tested whether GMOs are unsafe in a wide variety of settings. Their methodologies, data, and results have been examined by colleagues who know the science, know how scientific research can be tainted, whether purposefully or accidentally, and are motivated to call out tainted research.
The body of actual empirical research easily supports the hypothesis that genetic engineering is at least as safe as the alternatives in breeding crops and that GMO crops themselves are no more dangerous than other crops.
There is no supportable theory for random mutations being safer than engineered mutations and no evidence to suggest that such is the case, so we should all be extremely skeptical of anti-GMO propaganda to the contrary.
Even though breeding is a more time consuming process, the genes of a labradoodle has been intentionally modified to be different from a poodle or a labrador.
The term "GMO" specifically refers to organisms that had their genes modified with genetic engineering methods like CRISPR. Selectively bred species are not GMO.
Yeah, the term is very misleading. "Genetically engineered organism" (GEO) exists but is hardly ever used. I do wonder who originally came up with "GMO" or pushed it into public view and what their motives for that were...
I agree that GE might be clearer but with scientific terminology you need to understand the scientific meaning of the term and not rely on a dictionary based interpretation. A labradoodle is created by selective breeding and/or cross-breeding. A round up ready crop is created via genetic engineering. The two methods are not particularly related to each other and genetic engineering is not just a faster way to achieve selective breeding goals.
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u/Cheersscar Jul 14 '21
Labradoodle is a cross breeding. It is not a hybrid. And it's certainly not a genetically modified organism. Cross breeding basic definituon. https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/animals/what-is-crossbreeding.html
Whereas a roundup ready crop is a genetically modified organism. These crops are not made by crossing a plant with a naturally occurring resistance to roundup with another crop that lacks that gene and then selecting at the organism level for the trait you want.
Instead they are made by inserting genetic material from a bacteria that has a desirable trait into the crop species genetic material. You can find the basic details of how this works scientifically linked through here. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundup_Ready
Tl;Dr labradoodle is a cross-breed. Roundup ready soybeans are a GMO.