ARTICLE: Master Gardener: FAQs about GMOs, hybrids and heirlooms

Melody Hefner at The Reno Gazette-Journal provides a gardening FAQ about GMOs, hybrids and heirlooms. Here is an excerpt of the article:

It’s time to start planning the garden for next spring! Your mailbox is full of seed catalogs, and your local nursery is displaying racks and racks of seeds. But the seed packets and catalogs have terms you’ve never heard of before. What do the terms mean?

The newest buzzword showing up on seed packets and in seed catalogs is “non-GMO.” GMO stands for genetically modified organism. A genetically modified organism is a plant or animal whose DNA has been altered using biotechnology so that the organism contains a new gene or new combinations of genes that provide improved traits.

Can you buy GMO seed at a nursery or garden center? No. GMO seeds are sold only to farmers by the biotechnology company that produced them. The farmer has to sign a technology use agreement that communicates what can and cannot be done with the seed.

Is hybrid seed the same as GMO seed? No. Hybrid seeds are produced by cross-pollinating genetically distinct plants, either different species or plants of the same species with different traits. Natural hybrids can occur, but most commercial crops are produced by controlled cross-pollination.

Why were hybrids created? To improve the characteristics of the plants: prettier or bigger flowers, plumper seeds or bigger fruits, shoots or roots. The original rose, potato, tomato and squash were much smaller than present-day varieties. By selective cross-breeding over hundreds of years, higher yields and tastier crops have been produced.

Read the full article here.