If people had not spent thousands of years selecting the best plants, most of the fruits and vegetables we know today would look completely different. Wild maize was no bigger than a finger, bananas were filled with large, hard seeds, and many fruits were much smaller, tougher, and far less flavorful. Almost everything we find in supermarkets today is the result of thousands of years of selective breeding. By choosing the highest-yielding, best-tasting, and most resilient plants, humanity gradually transformed agriculture. Plant breeding has helped feed billions of people and has played a major role in reducing hunger across much of the world. Today, this science is entering a new era. Alongside traditional breeding, technologies such as precise genome editing and genetically modified crops are becoming increasingly advanced. When carefully tested and scientifically evaluated, these approaches can produce crops that are more resistant to pests, drought, and disease, reduce the need for pesticides, and help provide food for a growing global population. We have become so accustomed to modern fruits, vegetables, and grains that we rarely stop to think about how different they were just a few thousand years ago. Plant breeding is one of humanity’s greatest scientific achievements, and its future may help us feed even more people in a changing climate. #humanity #Genetics #Agriculture #edit #Biotechnology - @pitochk