Great crop. Hashtag harvest time.
Oh – hey! I’m Jake, a GMO seed.
I’m here to tell you about the life of a seed.
So let’s start with the basics.
Some people think that GMOs are created after harvest,
by injecting chemicals into foods,
or are added artificial ingredients.
But that’s not the case.
The truth is, GMOs - in agriculture - are seeds.
So what is a “GMO seed?”
Well, to understand that let’s talk about the history of farming and plant breeding.
Farmers began breeding plants for desirable traits
when farming first started.
Although early farmers didn’t know it, they were modifying the genetics of plants
by continually breeding different plants together,
harvesting the seeds and selecting the best performing plants to grow again the following year.
Over the years, seed breeders and scientists built on this knowledge.
And it has resulted in some pretty dramatic changes.
Check it out.
These techniques gave us all sorts of new foods,
including conventional and organic.
One of the new techniques seed breeders and scientists introduced
was genetic engineering.
With this, we’re not making dramatic changes,
we’re making very specific changes to a seed’s DNA
involving one or a few genes
to produce plants with specific traits like the ability to fight disease, bugs or weeds.
The crops grown from these seeds are referred to as “GMOs”.
GMO seeds – like me - are unique because we go through a lot of safety testing
and are reviewed by up to three different government agencies in the U.S. before we can get planted.
Okay, back to the basics.
So farmers can choose what kind of seeds they want to use.
Some plants are attacked by natural predators like worms and bugs,
so farmers might choose GMO seeds that protect them specifically against those pests.
This is my friend after he was attacked by a bug.
Sorry, dude.
But GMO corn plants - grown from GMO seeds like me -
are protected, so we don’t end up like my friend over here.
This protection also helps reduce crop damage – like this –
and the need for extra pesticide applications.
So then the farmers plant us.
And then, we grow into plants.
Look at that. Gorgeous.
No matter which type of seed the farmer chooses,
the food produced from them has the same proteins and nutritional makeup.
We were just developed differently.
When the crops are harvested, they can be used in a variety of ways –
like the food you eat,
plant-based products,
food for animals,
and over 12,000 other uses.
So that’s it – now you know the life of a seed!
See you later!