The production of genetically modified foods has provoked an ethical debate about whether it is right to use technology to create new forms of plant and animal life that otherwise would not exist. However, throughout human history agricultural crops have been genetically modified. There is nothing "natural" about food crops because most of them would be unable to propagate or survive without human intervention. What have changed over the years are the technologies that have been used to bring about genetic modification.

In general, humans have used three methods to modify plants genetically.

Conventional Breeding

At one time farmers practiced selective breeding and cross-breeding, or what is termed conventional breeding. Conventional breeding is less precise and predictable and therefore arguably less safe than genetic modification or, more correctly, transgenic plant breeding. The process has worked well because humans practicing conventional plant breeding have been...