What we have now are all Frankengrains.
Propaganda Analysis 101:
Always note the use of words.
Exactly. Agriculture and genetic selection of plants with favorable characteristics has been going on for thousands of years.
The article implies that corn only recently developed a cob due to modern geneticists’ intervention but in fact corn’s been continually selected for traits and modified for centuries.
Potatoes, likewise.
Corn and potatoes already had hundreds of varieties developed by native cultures before a single western geneticist ever took a look at them.
Animals can modify plant species too, it’s not just people. Animal spread seed of the plants that please the animals the most. The plants whose fruit is the most delectable will have their seed dispersed more widely to new and sometimes even better habitat for their growth that the original plant had at its disposal.
And even viruses and fungi can alter a plant species that hosts them.
Sounds like the author is terrified of evolution.