In the God centered evolutionary view of creation, God has brought about countless genetic modifications by increasing the genetic information of life forms with an end in view, the emergence of human life having intelligence and free will, able to participate as co-creators in the cosmos.

Since time immemorial, "Human beings modify plants, usually crop plants, through a process of breeding and selection to obtain the characteristics they desire and/or require. This applies to mankind’s manipulation of nature... and, perhaps in a more intensive form, since people started using genetic procedures. From this point of view, the introduction of novel traits into crop plants, whether by breeding or with the help of genetic engineering, should be regarded in the same way in the first instance." (Webpage: GMO safety by Dr. Roger J. Busch)

An example of grapes genetic manipulation in historical perspective will give us a better understanding. In this photo you see wild grapes which grow here and there in the countryside here at Valatie, NY. If we compare these to the grapes we eat, they are smaller and they put your teeth on edge because their sugar content is lower.

"Wild grapes were harvested by foragers and early farmers. For thousands of years, the fruit has been harvested for both medicinal and nutritional value; its history is intimately entwined with the history of wine.

Changes in pip shape (narrower in domesticated forms) and distribution point to domestication occurring about 3500-3000 BC, in southwest Asia or South Caucasus (Armenia and Georgia). Cultivation of the domesticated grape spread to other parts of the Old World in prehistoric or early historic times.

Grapes followed European colonies around the world, coming to North America around the 1600s, and to Africa, South America and Australia. In North America it formed hybrids with native species from the Vitis genus; some of these were intentional hybrids created to combat phylloxera, an insect pest which affected the European grapevine to a much greater extent than North American ones and in fact managed to devastate European wine production in a matter of years. Later, North American rootstocks became widely used to graft V. vinifera cultivars so as to withstand the presence of phylloxera." (Wikipedia Encyclopedia: Vitis vinifera)

So, as you can see, genetic manipulation in one form of another has been going on in the world for a long time.

3. Transgenic Modifications