Bigger, Fatter, Tastier!

Topic: Artificial selection has resulted in plants that are more disease-resistant, cows that produce more milk, and racehorses that run faster. One must wonder what will come next. In the blog entry answer the following question - under what circumstances should humans be artificially selecting plants or animals, if any?

Since the time of early Egyptians, humans have strived to achieve perfection in their genes and that of their pets through the use of artificial selection. Artificial selection is "Human intervention in animal or plant reproduction to ensure certain characteristics are represented in successive generations".
You may be thinking, "wait—the Egyptians didn't have modern science on their side!" Well you're right—they didn't. But the form of selective breeding they used is called inbreeding. This means that many Egyptian royalty were married to their own siblings to ensure a pure bloodline and strong offspring. And the same was done to their dogs, as in, those from the same ancestral lines were mated with one another to ensure that all were strong and had beautiful coats.

This method of inbreeding is still used with dogs today, but we have come a long way since the Egyptians. Now, artificial selection has extended to a great number of animals and most of the food on our tables—fruits, vegetables and meats. But why do we do it in the first place? Why do we use artificial selection and why do we genetically modify other organisms, fruits and vegetables?

The answer: To get the best! We do it to grow the biggest, juiciest, tastiest, fastest-growing fruits and vegetables. And in terms of porks, beef, and chicken, to get the meatiest and largest cows, pigs and chickens. We also take advantage of this new technology to create faster racehorses, cuter dogs, fluffier sheep—you get the point. This all sounds fine and dandy...but is it really? Sounds a bit too good to be true don't you think?

Well in a way, it is. There are some major risks that come with doing this. Along the path of genetic modification, many complications can arise which, in turn, can give rise to all kinds of deformities and unwanted results. Also, this can decrease the genetic variety of a group of animals which can make them all susceptible to some unexpected virus. For the animals, it may not even be all that great.

Take for example the cows that have been bred with large udders. Yeah it's awesome for us because we can squeeze more milk out of them, but to the cows, I would imagine that it would be quite uncomfortable for them to be walking with their overly large udders.
By singling out specific traits and repressing others, we may well be in fact erasing certain genes from the gene pool altogether—which, in the longterm, is irreversible. Imagine if having chickens with no feathers and more meat became the norm. We may never see another chicken with feathers again!
And how will these chickens survive if they were to suddenly be returned to the wild? The thing is—they wouldn't. They would have no way of surviving because we have removed all its defenses.

The fact that preferential treatment is used, meaning that we are the ones choosing which aspects of the plant/animal to keep and remove based on our selfish needs, well, it just doesn't sit well with me. Who are we to decide what qualities are "superior"? Must we disregard the comfort and well-being of the animal itself in our fight for perfection? Why are we humans so selfish? How come when we are blessed with so many great things, we always keep wanting more more more? *sigh* So many questions, so little time.

Anyways, to answer the main question of this bio blog, no, under no circumstances should we be ever artificially selecting plants or animals. We should have left it all to mother nature from the beginning instead of intervening and trying to control the outcome of all kinds of plants and animals. This is just another thing that will hit us on the back of the head in the coming future.

Sources:

• http://www.biology-online.org/2/12_selective_breeding.htm
• http://scienceblogs.com/mikethemadbiologist/2007/02/artificial_versus_natural_sele.php
• http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evo101/IIIE4Evochange.shtml
• www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/evolution/dog_breeding.html
• www.calacademy.org/science/sia/2009/07/artificial-selection-creating-the-perfect-pet/