Correct Answer: 6.300. 000

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Correct Answer: Pummelo

It took more than 200 years for the grapefruit as we know it to appear on our breakfast tables.

In 1693 an English captain named Shaddock transported some pummelo seeds from the  East Indies to the West Indies. He accidently planted these too close to a sweet orange, which combined to make a new fruit, which we know today as the Grapefruit.

The  pummel is the largest citrus fruit. However the first grapefruit were the size of their other parent the orange. Under cultivation, grapefruit became their more familiar size of three and a half to five inches in diameter.

Conventional vs Traditional breeding.

 For 100’s of years already, farmers and scientists make new and improved crops by conventional breeding.                                                                                                           

Traditional breeding:
Cross fertilizing: properties of two different plants are combined in one plant.
From the offspring, they select the plants with the most interesting combination of properties, and this work continues. This type of crossing and selection was done initially without knowing what was happening on the level of DNA, the genetic information carrier.
During the cross fertilization plants exchange large fragments of DNA . About half of the DNA of one plant is joined by half of the DNA of another plant. This creates offspring with a unique combination of - wanted and unwanted - properties of the parent plants. It is mostly intended to allow only a desired characteristic transferred. This is an intensive breeding program and many years are needed. They select the offspring with the desired properties and cross them again with the original and marketable plants. This process is repeated 8 to 10 times, resulting in a plant that resembles
the commercially most interesting plant and contains the desired new feature. Many crops are the result of this cross breeding and selection, just think of the grains in our bread today. It does not at all resemble the grains with which our ancestors started out ... Thanks to biotechnology research, we know the DNA of plants such as corn, rice and poplar now much better. Conventional breeding can use this knowledge, thereby selecting the desired crop and targeted much faster.

Biotechnology goes a step further: With the help of biotechnology, within one a step and in a very targeted way add one attribute to a plant. It does so by using only the desired gene (or genes) and insert into the genetic material of the desired plant.
What is the difference in processing:
With biotechnology you insert the desired plant properties in a focused way, with conventional breeding a lot of extra features are transferred, whether you like it or not.
• Inserting a new feature in one plant goes much faster with biotechnology techniques than conventional breeding.
• Genes from other plants or other organisms such as bacteria, algae plants or animals can also be inserted. At this rate a wide range of features becomes available.

Correct Answer: Tomato

Flavr Savr, was the first genetically modified tomato, this was the first commercially grown genetically engineered food to be granted a license for human consumption.

The Flavr Savr was created in California by Calgene. It was created with the use of APH(3)II. It was submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1992.

It was approved for human consumption in May 1994 with the conclusion that the tomato “is safe as tomatoes bred by conventional means” and "that the use of aminoglycoside 3'-phosphotransferase II is safe for use as a processing aid in the development of new varieties of tomato, oilseed rape, and cotton intended for food use."

It went on sale in 1994 but mounting costs prevented Calgene from becoming profitable and it ceased production in 1997.

Correct Answer: 8

These EU countries are currently cultivating GMOs:

 - Portugal: MON810

 - Spain: MON810

 - Romania: MON810

 - Poland : MON810

 - Czech Republic : MON810 and Amflora

 - Slovakia : MON810

 - Germany : Amflora

 - Sweden : Amflora

Correct Answer: Japan

Of the 57 countries that have granted approvals for biotech crops, Japan tops the list followed by USA, Canada, South Korea, Mexico, Australia, the Philippines, the European Union, New Zeeland and China.

However, Japan does not plant biotech crops; it is a major food importing country. So the country that has the most approved GMOs and is also planting them, is USA.

Source: ISAAA report: Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2009 by Clive James (2009)

Correct Answer: Helping Farmers produce food more sustainably
Green biotechnology offers a “toolbox” that can help farmers produce food sustainably through:

1. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction

2. Crop adaptation

3. Crop protection and increased yield from less available arable land

Given the likely impacts of climate change on agricultural productivity and the role played by agricultural practices in contributing to global warming, agricultural biotechnology techniques must play a role as one of the solutions available in the fight against climate change in all of the areas mentioned above.

The use of GM crops can mitigate the impact of climate change by enabling farmers to grow more food, more reliably, in harsher conditions.

Correct Answer: 13.3 million farmers around the world have chosen to grow GM crops in the last 13 years, making agricultural biotech one of the fastest adopted agricultural innovations ever.

The advantage is clear – 13 years of global GM crop cultivation have demonstrated their benefits.

In all EU Member States, however, farmers are being denied access to the tools necessary to meet the challenges they face, due to the EU’s dysfunctional authorisation process. Some approvals for cultivation of GM crops have been blocked for a decade and the backlog of new approvals increases every year. Today, European farmers only have access to one GM trait in one single crop, and in a number of countries even this is not accessible, due to politically motivated bans or other measures.