SPLICE OF LIFE: Genetically modified food at ‘center’ of debate | The Red and Black

SPLICE OF LIFE: Genetically modified food at ‘center’ of debate | The Red and Black: "Some call it frankenfood. Others call it playing God. But at the core of the matter, genetically modified food and crops are at the center of a debate between government, science and humanity.

“You get a variety of plant that says ‘new and improved’ — we’re the people who make new and improved plants,” said Wayne Parrott, a professor in the crop and soil sciences department. “From an academic perspective, a [genetically modified organism] is any of the plants that have been new and improved over the past century or so. From a sort of popular perception and media perception, a GMO is a plant that has become new and improved not by traditional methods but by splicing a new gene into it.”

There is a fine line between traditional breeding and gene splicing technology, Parrott said."