Advances in understanding the genetic makeup of plants could ultimately help to produce more resilient, higher-yielding crops, the head of French seed company Limagrain said, with the potential to end the heated debate over genetic modification.
Distrust of crops produced using genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, has marginalised the technology in Europe, where politicians this month moved closer to giving countries the scope to ban such crops even when they have regulatory clearance.
However, Limagrain President Jean-Yves Foucault says the controversy clouds the potential of plant gene research to bring improved results by traditional methods.
“If you get an intimate understanding of a plant, you may get answers via traditional selection without using GMOs,” Foucault told Reuters. “GMOs are an important question but one that shouldn’t be dramatised.”
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Researchers at farmers cooperative Limagrain have mapped the genome, or complete genetic material, of several crops and are working on deciphering that of wheat, the world’s most widely grown crop and one that has a particularly complex genetic make-up.
Read full, original story: Genetic research could offer alternatives to GMO crops, firm says
