But traditional plant breeding methods using unsung low-tech approaches to mix genes have been successfully producing new and more desirable varieties of many crop plants for years.
Strawberries are a good example.
Over the past five years, University of Guelph Plant Agriculture Prof. Alan Sullivan and Ph.D. student Bob Bors have modified traditional breeding methods to cross North American commercial strawberry cultivars with exotic, wild ones. Their research successfully produced new strawberry species with an unprecedented genetic mix, offering unique flavours, stronger disease and pest resistance and more targeted and longer growing seasons. Traditional breeding practices have many applications, says Sullivan. Some might be called a low-tech biotechnology. They have always been well-received by consumers and are considered quite natural and acceptable by the public.