This is the best explanation I have ever read on the difference between traditional breeding and genetic engineering.
Martin Dagoberto
undated
Biotechnology is nothing new; humans have been manipulating other species' genetics to serve our needs and desires for thousands of years. Tomatoes, potatoes, corn, beer, poodles-none would exist as they do today without the deliberate, methodical, and at times questionable (poodles?), intervention of humans.
However, there are several important distinctions between the more recent techniques commonly referred to as "genetic engineering" or "genetic modification" and the techniques we employed in the several millennia before it was possible to combine the DNA of a flounder and a tomato plant. To collapse the distinction between these two branches of biotechnology is to muddy the debate over the possible ramifications of genetic engineering.
Keep reading: http://www.councilforresponsiblegene...spx?pageId=466