Peter,
I think selective breeding has many advantages. I like my wirehaired dachshund, for example, because she is much better than a golden or a lab at chasing rabbits. With a mutt....who knows?
But there are more mistakes made than successes. To say that we are performing better than nature does by manipulating the genome or trying to create specific allelic distributions is naive at best and arrogant at worst, and I don't care who you quote on that. There are plenty who disagree. The story of Icarus ought to be an example, but the lesson never sinks in.
I'm very glad that bees continue to confound those who try to control them through (mis)managing their genetics.
Christina
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