Virtually all modern day crops have been genetically modified — even the ones that are labeled “non-GMO.” While GMO does stand for “Genetically Modified Organism,” this term is misleading because it is only referring to one of many genetic modification techniques — transgenesis. The graphic below shows just some of the many different crop modification techniques that have been utilized to create virtually all of the crops available today. Many crops were barely edible or were inedible thousands of years ago.
An example of artificial selection is the selective breeding of the teosinte plant into sweetcorn. An example of mutagenesis is the mutant “Star Ruby” grapefruit created through mutations induced by ionizing radiation. These are both examples of crops that have been genetically modified, but are not considered to be “GMOs” by many media outlets and in other modern literature. In fact, there’s a database of thousands of mutant crops that have been developed by humans via mutagenesis, and there are thousands more genetically modified crops that have been created via traditional breeding as well as many other methods. Yet, as described by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, some popular media and organizations have chosen to narrow the definition (technically incorrect, though becoming more commonly accepted by consumers) to only include “a plant, animal, microorganism or other organism whose genetic makeup has been modified in a laboratory using genetic engineering or transgenic technology.”