Description: Maryland farmers grow soybeans on more than 500,000 acres using responsible farm management practices to protect our air, land and water today and for future generations.
Tell Me About: GMO Soybeans The World Health Organization defines genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally. It allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another, including between non-related species. Such methods are used to create GMO plants – which result in GMO food crops. This technology is called biotechnology.
Farmers and gardeners have been creating plant hybrids for as long as they’ve been growing plants. Biotechnology simply serves as a more technologically advanced method.
USDA says that while particular biotech traits may be new to certain crops, the same basic types of traits are often found naturally in plants and allow them to survive and evolve.