Selective breeding versus transgenesisIntro: The following report will compare two different types of human manipulation; selective breeding and transgenesis and the biological implications of each. I will focus on drought tolerant crops and particularly drought tolerant corn because scientists have provided evidence that drought will worsen in the future due to global warming and that more than 30% of land currently used for agriculture around the world will no longer be usable. At some point, a future drought will affect New Zealand. Therefore, New Zealand farmers will need to start growing drought-tolerant crops using either selective breeding or transgenesis in order to be ready for the future. Selective breeding: Humans have been manipulating gene transfer using selective breeding for thousands of years. For example, the original carrot from the 900s was small, purple, and contained no carotene, while the carrot we know today is orange, thick, juicy, and is the result of thousands of years of selective breeding for most sought after features. Another example of fairly modern artificial selection is the selection of cows for the fattest milk. In the 1890s, the introduction of the Babcock test allowed farmers to measure the fat content of their cows' milk; this allowed farmers to select the cows that produced the fattest milk and breed them. Tests showed that the fat content of cow's milk increased from 3-4% to 4.5-5.1% in the 2000s. Farmers realized that production records were more important than production. appearance or pedigree. A more modern selective breeding technique is the use of marker-assisted breeding (MAS). MAS is a method of screening an organism to see if a desirable trait is present...... middle of article...... discovery-of-gm-wild-wheat/5. http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/10/what-science-tells-us-about-the-safety-of-genetically-modified-foods/6. http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/norman-borlaug-and-selective-breeding-of-wheat/12908.html7. http://cls.casa.colostate.edu/transgeniccrops/faqpopup.html8. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.00297309. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg9-HTtgFOk10. http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/pages/monsanto-statement-on-usda-gm-wheat.aspx11. http://www.monsanto.com/gmwheat/pages/default.aspx12. http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/grocery_shopping/crops/22.geneically_modified_wheat.html13. http://web.mit.edu/demoscience/Monsanto/impact.html14. http://web.mit.edu/demoscience/Monsanto/players.html#reportsonge15. http://organic-center.org/news/gmo-wheat-discovery-dangers-and-implications/