The concerns ranged from possible effects on the health of cows and the safety of milk from treated cows, to the economic impacts on dairy farmers resulting from an increase in the milk supply. For example, compare popcorn and beer. Popcorn is prepared by cooking in vegetable oil. Making popcorn is food processing, but most people would not consider it biotechnology. Both malting and fermentation are examples of classical biotechnology - technology that has been around for 6,000 years.
Biotechnology can speed the selection and breeding of crops with desired traits.
For example, using DNA markers allows corn breeders to detect even in seedlings the genes that encode complex traits such as drought resistance. Biotechnology is being tested to increase crop yields by inserting genes for resistance to diseases or pests using genetic engineering techniques. For example, from 1992 to 1994, the Monsanto Company tested potatoes that produce an insect-killing protein originally found in a bacterium. The plants resisted the Colorado potato beetle . Potatoes are also being modified to improve the tuber quality to make better French fries or potato chips.