Humans have practiced selective breeding for thousands of years to develop plants, animals and fungi better suited for human use than they are in their natural states. No genetic engineering is required, yet the genes of selected strains are different, "improved." Even people opposed to genetic modification would presumably agree that "ordinary" selection, domestication and farming methods are acceptable -- indeed, where would we be without them? To paraphrase Falstaff, banish plump Jack (and the strain of yeast that makes his beer), and you banish all the world.

The father of modern agriculture would have to be Luther Burbank (1849-1926), who devoted his life to plant breeding, developing more than 800 strains of different vegetables, fruit and flowers. His hybridization and selection experiments in Massachusetts and California were conducted on a huge scale, involving millions of plants. He developed the Burbank potato, used in Ireland to help combat the blight, 113 varieties of plums and 50 different lilies. His experiments had a worldwide influence on farming.

Now scientists at Maxygen in California and Eli Lilly and Co. in Indianapolis have developed a technique -- DNA shuffling -- that could have as profound an influence on biotechnology and modern food production as Burbank had on agriculture. DNA shuffling allows breeding and selection to be carried out at far faster rates than are currently possible, yet the technique relies entirely on natural evolutionary methods.