Biotechnology: Going Beyond GMOs

Breakthroughs in this emerging scientific discipline have profoundly altered the landscape of food production, processing, and manufacturing. What are the benefits and risks?

Food Technology Magazine | Article

RENE D. MASSENGALE

Modification of grain, vegetable, and fruit crops has been done for centuries through traditional cultivation methods. From early times, farmers would modify crops through careful selection of favored traits and cross-breeding of those selected plants. Today, this traditional technology continues with modern tools that allow the rapid selection of plant lines for hybridization, the rapid detection of desirable traits, and the confirmation of successful plant crosses. In addition, new technologie…

Figure 1. How Biotechnology Supports the Food Supply. From Rene D. Massengale.


Figure 2. Top Global Producers of Biotechnology Crops in 2009. Adapted from James, 2010.

Figure 3. Increase in Genetically Engineered Crops in the U.S. From U.S.D.A., 2010.


Table 1. Examples of Biotechnology Applications in Food Processing. From Rene D. Massengale.


Table 2. Examples of Biotechnology Applications in Food Manufacturing. Adapted from FAO, 2010.

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  1. Emerging Science and Technologies
  2. Biotechnology

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