RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK SHAPES THE ATTITUDE OF AGRARIANS TOWARDS GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS: A SURVEY-BASED ANALYSIS FOR UKRAINE

Abstract

Rapid development of biotechnological engineering in agriculture in recent decades resulted in marvellous achievements in the field of crop breeding. Genetic engineering as the youngest and the most prospective, as well as contradictory, branch of modern biotechnology allowed scientists to create new types of agricultural plants, which are the products of genetic modifications and belong to the class of so-called genetically modified organisms (hereafter referred to as GMO). These crops are also known under the name of transgenic, which depicts the essence of their creation: transferring beneficial foreign genes from the genomes of other organisms (not limited to plants, but also retrieved from other kingdoms like bacteria) to complement or replace natural genotype in order to achieve certain economically desirable traits, which are difficult or even impossible to achieve through conventional plant breeding methods (Rani & Usha, 2013).