Pros of Selective Breeding
The following are some of the advantages that come with selective breeding to improve the quality of life in humans as well as eliminate hunger by providing enough food in the human food chain:
1. Increased profits when selective breeding is carried out in the agricultural sector.
The application of selective breeding comes with many advantages from the perspective of agricultural products. For instance, dairy farmers can select cattle that give high milk quantities to reproduce, thus increasing their output levels. Additionally, steers use the same approach to enhance leaner and faster meat production to sustain the meat chain. Plant crops with the highest yields have their seeds preserved to see if they can have the same results in the next growing season.
Altogether, these advantages help elevate the number of products and their quality for the farmers. This means that consumers are willing to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for the items and, in turn, improve their living standards.
2. Selective breeding assists in eliminating problematic diseases.
The application of selective breeding has offered humans the ability to prevent or eliminate specific diseases from animals and plants. If the immunity traits to combat problematic regions in the chain of life are identified, humans have greater control over each generation’s outcomes. This advantage compares to the idea of a vaccine. Still, the process carries the immunities into the organism’s genetic profile instead of updating every animal and plant’s physical health.
It is pretty evident that when complex diseases are eliminated, there is an increase in plants and animals. Thus, the food chain is increased. Considering that the human population is also increasing, there will be no scarcity of food, and hunger will not be a problem anymore for the coming generations.
3. Selective breeding lets us utilize the land areas that might not fit the current products.
The desirable traits in animals and plants that humans have developed over time are beneficial in adapting to different living or growing conditions. The best part is that even the tribal groups living in the deserts can use this advantage by creating corn crops that thrive without hard work or automation.
However, some particular rules need to be followed, such as soaking your seeds overnight before planting them or practicing block planting to encourage pollination. If you are persistent with these practices, it is possible to use the methods to flourish your life in any region or part of this planet. By keeping an open mind, these techniques can be taken to space or utilized for interplanetary take-over efforts in the future.
4. Selective breeding replicates the work provided by GMOs.
With selective breeding, you can produce animals and plants that have better resistance to diseases and pests. Crops can be bred selectively, thus improving the yield, and harvest comes in a short time. Animals are selectively bred to take the least time for full development and enter the human food chain. GMOs might interfere with the genetic profiles and animals’ and plants’ DNA to produce the results quickly. Still, there is no potential danger in selective breeding, and everything is carried out naturally. Although the process is slower compared to GMO, it is a safer process.
5. Selective breeding supports other life infrastructures.
Selective breeding does not present the same risks to bees and other pollinators that other artificial selection types provide. The processes used in selective breeding are entirely natural; even when human interference creates specific changes, the risks to support life are lesser. This keeps the kinds of life present on the planet and enables humans to progress towards a better future generation.
6. No safety issues to manage with selective breeding.
Selective breeding boasts the advantage of a natural evolutionary process that passes along all the desirable traits. Selective breeding eliminates the use of GMOs to create specific results. There are no worries of artificial tampering since everything remains natural, and no risk of developing dangerous diseases. However, there are concerns for the future generations of animals or plants if the selected parent species possess negative traits that can be passed on to the offspring. The positive side is that even the desirable traits will be passed to the offspring.
7. Section breeding can be utilized to refine a particular species.
A good example is in dogs, where dogs within the same breed refine the species. This gives you the option to choose two complementary dog partners to make it possible to refine genetic traits that can be used in future generations. You can reinforce specific aptitudes or skills so that your puppies in the coming generations maintain the evolutionary progression. You have to keep a long and short-term goal in place for the merits of artificial selective breeding to be helpful; this is the cause of the failed attempts or efforts.
To begin reinforcing unique traits within the chosen species, it will take multiple generations. If you expect immediate results with your first-generation offspring, then your conditions will not meet your expectation and will not match your efforts.
8. Ability to develop new species.
When you consider selective breeding, it has helped increase every harvest’s quantity and quality when the technique is followed accurately. For example, the corn approach has enhanced the number of ears a plant can give while simultaneously enhancing every kernel’s size.
When this technique is used with cotton, new varieties are created, thus providing better fibers. In turn, the quality of the textile is improved without any extra processing work. Selective breeding can also be used to develop new varieties or species. Tulips, roses, and orchids have larger or smaller blooms with different colors due to the application of the selective breeding process.
9. No company patent required.
As long as you are working in the agricultural sector, you can start the selective breeding method anytime you want. The method is designed as a natural way for farmers to reap more profits yearly and breed-specific traits into plants and animals. This makes them be more productive generation after generation.
10. The process is free.
The selective breeding process is free, and you can perform it on both plants and animals, primarily for business. All that is needed from you is you have enough knowledge of this process to get the best results.
11. The cost of selective breeding is low.
When selective breeding is compared to the GMO research process or any other kind of food chain improvement, it turns out that the process is way much cheaper. Several farmers can select animals and crops according to their available resources and engage in selective breeding. This is possible since the process is affordable and a great way of improving your animals and plants with unique desired characteristics. This is one of the cheapest ways to meet the changing demands of this globe and the modern world’s dynamic economic markets.
12. An opportunity to dwell on specialization.
The first application of selective breeding in dogs is to develop specialized skills beyond a specific breed. Before any breed associations or kennel clubs, individuals were breeding canines to get favorable qualities for people’s tasks. This is the reason why there are herding, hunting, and family dogs. A specific group serves a specific purpose that guarantees a better life. Even if it takes some decades to achieve the desired results, the effort of thousands of breeding opportunities will finally shape animals and plants to adapt according to their environment much better.
13. Genetic diversity continues.
The best way to create the desirable traits in a species is by carrying out crossbreeding. This process involves using two parents unrelated to providing unique, desirable traits from each parent. This is mainly observed in dogs, such as partnering a Poodle and a Labrador Retriever to create a Labradoodle. The offspring created from this partnering forms a lower shedding coat and fewer dander problems. The result is a dog that has guiding capabilities and a suitable characteristic for any age without the possibility of a unique allergen trigger. The issue with crossbreeding and other low-risk artificial selection processes is that you rarely predict the process’s outcomes.
Cons of Selective Breeding
Even with the numerous advantages associated with selective breeding, it still has some drawbacks, as explained below:
1. The desirable traits for humans might not be reflective of species’ requirements.
For instance, a dairy farmer selectively bred in his herd to develop an offspring that gives more milk in the future generation. What would happen if the udder stayed small, but the milk increased to match the mother’s genetic traits? The results given are that of an uncomfortable cow every time since there is no way to process the milk completely. This problem is observed in all species, mainly in the animal kingdom, where humans over-emphasize particular traits.
Still, some animals have been influenced over time to fit into this category. For example, Justin Kobylka breeds snakes and spent about eight years breeding pythons to have offspring with spots resembling smiley faces. Moreover, the Gibber Italicus Canary has been bred due to its uncommon posture. Still, scaleless chickens lack or instead do not grow feathers, although they are challenging to breed since they cannot flap their wings.
2. Original plant traits are lost.
The selective breeding process can create offspring with different traits, thus losing the parent organism’s original trait. This is mainly observed in the future generation since they do not show any similar traits with their ancestors; thus, a specific breed is entirely wiped out.
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3. Creation of a population of animals and plants with similar genetics.
When a whole species of plants and animals have a similar genetic profile, the plants and animals will have similar strengths and weaknesses. This means that it is easier for an infection to spread to the entire population since each species is vulnerable to the impact brought by that infection.
A good example is the Panama diseases for banana plants that demonstrate the drawback of selective breeding. The first outbreak of this disease entirely devastated all the commercial Gros Michel species of bananas worldwide. This problem is being observed again, with Tropical Race 4 posing a threatening blow on the Cavendish banana species grown nowadays.
4. Selective breeding is only about humans.
Animals and plants subjected to selective breeding may develop structures or bodies that do not support their desired traits. Their genetic conditions might develop further, thus reducing the potential of the animal or plant. For instance, a cow with a big body but tiny legs and hooves will struggle to support its weight. The meat produced for consumption will be more, but this animal’s quality of life is reduced, just for human convenience.
5. There is no guarantee of the desired traits being passed to the next generation.
The best and only guarantee that an offspring of animals and plants will inherit the parent’s desirable traits is to choose two parents with the same genes you need in your next generation of animals and plants. But, since only one parent has the desired characteristics, the chances are 50/50 that the offspring will acquire the desired traits. Some species only have a 1 in 4 chance of receiving the traits or passing the traits along.
It is possible for selective breeding to form offspring that possess different traits from their parents. There is also a possibility of losing permanent traits or picking up new traits that are more desirable with this process.
6. Selective breeding elevates the chances of mutation.
When a particular species is experiencing reduced genetic diversity levels, the risk of mutation is higher for each subsequent generation. The risk continues to exist until the point that there is no genetic bottleneck available. The problem is even notable in human beings. Certain ethnic groups decide to stay together, practicing inter-marriages instead of moving to the outside world and starting a family there.
This is the case in plants and animals when the same selective breeding process is utilized repetitively. The results are environmental influences impacting the genetic diversity of the animals and plants. This drawback makes the species more susceptible to its genetic diseases with time, limiting the increase in the number of offspring in the coming generations.
7. The risks of inbreeding are increased.
This drawback is also known as the “coefficient of relationship.” This is a measurement of the degree of consanguinity existing in every animal or plant based on its overall pedigree. If two parents are significantly related, the desired traits are almost guaranteed to be passed to the future generation. This increases the problems of disease development, thus bringing potential problems that might last for several generations.
For instance, purebred dogs originate from the same small group that was initially established in that breed. This means that the coefficient of inbreeding increases with each coming generation. This is the reason why breeders working with the simple biological life must account for the pedigree of the animals and plants with which they use to spotlight the common parental ancestors and bottleneck them right away.
8. Unwanted species encourage the disposal of life.
When animals and plants create offspring that lack the desired characteristics, it is not uncommon for the generation to be considered a discarded commodity. Even when the concept of pet ownership is more accessible and the crops are better because of the selective breeding practices, some scenarios report cases of abandonment if the outcome is not in favor of the breeder. This drawback might lead to the establishment of puppy mills and other controversial methods to develop a generation based on individuals’ profits instead of the species’ welfare.
9. Selective breeding creates issues with popular sires.
The common sire syndrome is observed when a unique stud in a species gets many breeding requests and humans fulfill them. The process involves artificial insemination. Future generations share too many genetic materials since they are unique animals or plants that everyone desires.
