That's what we would be saying if the geniuses of science didn't engineer a weedy grass found in central America into the beloved corn that we have today. 10,000 years ago, our ancestors never had the golden pleasure of corn! By artificial selection, we engineered teosinte into corn. So how does one do this? A stalk of teosinte, has variations. Some are tall, some are short, fat while some are skinny, and some have plump seeds and some has itty bitty ones. Some smart person though "What do I want to eat next year?". Genes are then taken from crop that have the desirable traits and the process if repeated generation after generation until VOILA, masterpiece.
After looking at this picture of teosinte, I've never been so grateful for science in my life.
And take a look at wild tomatoes (right) and domestic ones (left)
Artificial selection in plants is wonderful, though we do risk them being wiped out by diseases or environmental factors. Since they lack variation, they're all in the same boat which may lead to survival or doomsday ( So dramatic...). I think designing our fruits and veggies is still a good gamble. Can you imagine having those tomatoes in your salad? Yuck!
Now let's talk about artificial selection in animals. A study was done in Pushkinskoe Fur Farm in Mo
scow, where over the course of 41 years they experimented on sables. In the wild, they are usually found with furs that vary from a sandy yellow to dark brown. Dark brown, black, or blue-black fur is considered the most valuable. From this study, they concluded that artificial selection aimed to change characteristics unrelated to fitness has a co-relation to the decrease of the animal's fitness. Of course, cows, pigs, chickens and other produce are genetically enhanced to be bigger, meatier, and produce more. The question is, is it okay to do that to them, knowing they suffer the consequences? Well this can branch out to two point of views:
-No! These animals deserve a good quality of life too. Animal rights is important, especially in a world where we rely on them so much.
-Yes, they are going to get slaughtered for meat anyway and live in a domestic environment. it's not like they're in the wild, fending for themselves with their less-than-efficient fitness.
Though i thought of both of these points myself, I believe in my second one a more. (Animal rights activists, I'm looking forward to your angry letters). Yes, I understand it's a pretty morbid point of view but farmers need to have the best produce, it's our dinner but their livelihood that they are controlling.
But what if people are artificially selecting to make perfect domestic animals? The video "Artificial Selection: Creating the perfect pet" introduced in unit 8 was terrifyingly creepy. In the video, Brian Simison, the head of The Center of Comparative Genomics said that when owners strive to make pure breeds, it results in overlapping genes which can be recessive. Cavalier Spaniards can get syringomyelia which causes them a lot of pain, yet they win contests for their owners. Now that's just mean. I believe that artificially "enhancing" an animal to win it's owner prize money in dog contests is cruel. I say to those dog breeders, go get a real job.
Work cited
http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=24827621n282n824&size=largest
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/070201_corn
http://www.sable-pro.net/rl-sable.jpg
i love reading your out of this world opinions tammy ! LOL. i definitely agree with your point of view. there are things, such as corn, we cant enjoy without the help of artificial selection. you brought up really good points about the actual purpose of selective breeding, comparing dog breeders to cow breeders, because they really do have different intentions. artificial selection is a great method for purposes that serve society well, but i think that we shouldn't over do it because as far as we know, we're probably putting these plants and animals in danger in the long run.
ReplyDeletegreat job on your blog :)
Gooood blog! I liked your comparsion between the teosinte and the corn because it shows how far humans have gone with technology. Artificial selection does help farmers protect their crops and make them resistent to diseases. The video that you mentioned towards the end was a video is saw also and I agree with what you've said. The dog breeders are winning dog shows, while their dogs are suffering from diseases. Some artificial selection could be allowed because it makes life a whole lot easier, but unethical things like dog breeding for dog shows should be stopped.
ReplyDeleteYour introduction was amusing and certainly, artificial selection has done alot of humans, but I cannot help but disagree that you support artificial selection in livestock. So what's a few more pounds of meat on a cow going to do? Produce more money for farmers? Natural is not only better because it excludes human interference but animals have been sustaining our population for so long that they deserve some rights too! However, I am completely on your side for the dog breeding practice. Owners who let their pets endure immense amounts of pain are cruel and have no morals.
ReplyDeleteI could NOT agree more with everything that you've had to say in your blog. I would have to disagree with the previous post. I do agree with you in supporting artificial selection in livestock. I do not believe that the only prime example of the use of selective breeding is to increase the amount of meat in the cow population. There are several, several, several, other uses of selective breeding to enhance our livestock and agriculture. I feel pretty naive to not have known about selective breeding when it has had SUCH an impact on the environment that we live in, and I do say that with honestly. Without selective breeding we would not have many of the animals that we have currently, not the same types of foods. Sure, it's easy to pick out the negative side, but in this certain case, I do believe that there are enough pro's to overrule the con's. Your blog was very informative. It shows that you put a lot of time and dedication into your work. I enjoyed the visual ad's and everything overall. Great work Tammy!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness Tammy, I love reading your blogs. If you haven't noticed, I think I also commented on your other one! That's besides the point though! I really like your blog because it not only states the facts, but you do it in a way that is easy to understand. Your blog made me realize how thankful we should be for corn and tomatoes, since we do not have to eat them looking like...(the pictures you put on your blog). As for the point you chose, "Yes, they are going to get slaughtered for meat anyway and live in a domestic environment. it's not like they're in the wild, fending for themselves with their less-than-efficient fitness." I may need to kind of disagree with you there. I feel that it is truly wrong to genetically enhance cows, pigs, and chicken just for better produce. I feel it comes down to humans having more than what they need. On another note though, I watched this Dog Breeding video and I honestly find it soooooo wrong that breeders just choose this or that on the dog they want to create- not even considering the health of this living creature. So in that case, I completely agree with you when it comes down to dog breeders getting a "real" job, since their job seems pretty cruel at times. Again, I really love your blog and the information it consisted of! Great work!
ReplyDeleteTammy, your blogs are so interesting to read! It's filled with thoughts and comedic yet mind-taking comparisons. After reading your blogs, I realized and find out alot more on the different articles you've used as sources. I found it pretty interesting of how tomatoes ACTUALLY look like if we didn't enhance them and what not. I definitely agree with you, because I would never ever want that in my salad; it's just not appealing at all. Alike to the comment above from mine (Belinda's), I'm actually taking sides with Belinda, and strongly disagreeing with the fact that you do not find it wrong that we humans are taking so much advantage over domestic animals, or even alot of the other ones around our world. I mean, if you think about it are we really stewards? Maybe I'm only thinking this because I'm pretty much not really a big fan of meat or animal slaughtering, in general. I know that we humans depend on these alot in gaining more nutrients and proteins, but I find that the ways we do it is just reaching it's limit of cruelty. Now as for the dog breeding video, I found it wrong and truly disturbing. But yet, I still agree with you on the opinions you've stated about this video. I find that dog breeders aren't really a job-job that's important in our civilization. Great blog entry :)
ReplyDeleteI disagree! I believe Artificial selection is a good thing, I don't know about you but I enjoy a buttered popcorn while watching my movies. You know what its a modern age, with stem cells growing from an infant into a young adult in research its about time we use that billion dollars into something good for the environment. Now when I want to artificially select a person that is different, I mean we have so many possibilities with genes, but say that we didn't want our baby to have a high risk of diabetes, or even worse Cancer? Now blue eyes may be all the rage but I'm sure if a parent had to choose between a blue eyed bucket of sunshine and a healthy black eyed sprout they would definitely chose health. But you know maybe that's just me, controversial as it may be I enjoyed reading your blog post.
ReplyDeleteHey Tammy,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on another great bio blog. Your have been consistent in doing and putting effort in them. I like your blog its very comparative and informative. You were able to depict and contrast the good use of artificial selection and the selfish and immoral use of artificial selection. It is amazing to see how far we have gone in technology and science, for without artificial selection we wouldn’t be enjoying the pleasure of eating corn today. It would still be teosinte, undesirable to eat. We wouldn’t also have the fresh variations of green vegetables to eat as salad. You brought up really good points about the improper use of artificial selection through dog breeding. Are we that selfish to endanger and harm animals for our benefits? We allow the dogs to suffer such cruel diseases for our pleasure and benefit. This could cause the animal’s future generation to suffer as well. I agree with your points. I believe that there is a limit when we use artificial selection. The use of artificial selection in livestock is reasonable, however, if it is to enhance animals for our purpose and benefits it is morally wrong.
Good job on your bio blog, keep them coming.
Nice blog! Thanks for the info, I'm not really for natural selection either. Though some stuff can be really cool, like that corn up there? That's pretty amazing, I love corn. And those tomatoes? I don't really like tomatoes, but that's just gross, those little tiny ones? Yuck. But sometimes I do think about things that could be wrong with the food I'm eating. It could be dangerous, some unknown long term disease that will form because they're artificially selected. Things should be natural, and done naturally.
ReplyDelete