Biotechnology and Farming
What is Agricultural Biotechnology?
Agricultural biotechnology is a collection of scientific techniques that are used to improve and modify plants, animals and microorganisms for a particular purpose. Based on scientific understanding of DNA, scientists have been able to develop solutions to increase the productivity of agriculture. Some of the main purposes of agricultural biotechnology include forming greater yields and building a natural resistance for crops to fight certain diseases. There are quite a few ways to accomplish this goal, however, the method that tends to get the most attention from the public and society happens to be genetic modification.
How is Agricultural Biotechnology being used?
Genetic Modification: This is the process in which scientists move genes from one organism to another. This process allows the transfer of useful characteristics, such as resistance to a certain disease, into a plant, animal or any other microorganism by inserting genes from another organism.
Agricultural biotechnology is a collection of scientific techniques that are used to improve and modify plants, animals and microorganisms for a particular purpose. Based on scientific understanding of DNA, scientists have been able to develop solutions to increase the productivity of agriculture. Some of the main purposes of agricultural biotechnology include forming greater yields and building a natural resistance for crops to fight certain diseases. There are quite a few ways to accomplish this goal, however, the method that tends to get the most attention from the public and society happens to be genetic modification.
How is Agricultural Biotechnology being used?
Genetic Modification: This is the process in which scientists move genes from one organism to another. This process allows the transfer of useful characteristics, such as resistance to a certain disease, into a plant, animal or any other microorganism by inserting genes from another organism.
Molecular diagnostics: Molecular diagnostics are methods that detect very precise and specific gene products. This process is used in agriculture so that diagnosis of crops and live stock diseases are more accurate.
Vaccines: Biotechnology-derived vaccines have been made and they are used on both humans and animals. They are normally considered to be cheaper, as well as safer than traditional vaccines. Biotechnology-derived vaccines are stable at room temperature and typically do not need be to stored in a refrigerated area.
Tissue culture: Tissue culture is the regeneration of plants by a process that involves exposing plant tissue to a specific regimen of light, nutrients and hormones, to produce new clone plants of the original mother plant. This is done over a short period of time. Plants grown under the process of tissue culture tend to have a disease free growing period, healthier root systems and a higher survival rate in lab activities than other plants.
Benefits of Agricultural Biotechnology
There are many applications of agricultural biotechnology. Many food products in local grocery stores nowadays, are a result of agricultural biotechnology. Scientists manipulate genes so that they can create crops that produce more than they would normally, unmodified. They also set in genes that increase nutritional value in crops. For example, scientists have already used genetic modification in producing vitamin A rich rice products.
Another reason why agricultural biotechnology is beneficial is because of its ability to produce plants that grow in wider ranges of different environments. Many plant species are only able to grow in certain soil conditions and certain climates and the use of agricultural biotechnology has been able to change that. Agricultural biotechnology has also been able to make plant species more resistant to diseases, chemical pollutants and unwanted pests. There are genes that are given to the plants that improve the defence against these threats that normally have the ability to destroy entire crop populations. Scientific research and all these new techniques have not only introduced new genes and ways to eliminate old ones for speeding up production and creating less waste plant products but they can also alter the way certain food products look or taste.
Concerns about Agricultural Biotechnology
By introducing new genetic material to the farming industry, there is a possibility that new allergens can be created. Extensive allergenic tests are done on genetically modified food mostly in the United States and developed countries that can afford such regulations. If genetic modification were to go wrong, allergens and toxins can be produced within plant products which would pose serious health problems on those who are consuming the food produced by agricultural biotechnology.
Although agricultural biotechnology increases pest resistance in crops, there are a few problems caused by this. Because farmers are using more chemicals to treat their crops, the excess chemicals begin to build up toxins that seep into the soil or even into groundwater. This would have negative affects upon our environment that seems to be already deteriorating. Genetically modified crops that contain toxic proteins used to get rid of pests unfortunately also affect other species rather than only the ones they are targeted towards.
This raises the fear that agricultural biotechnology could lead to a loss of biodiversity, not only in animal species but also in plant species. If we continue to grow a particular crop in which we have already genetically modified, farmers are more likely to discontinue any other varieties of crops that could be grown and that have been grown in the past. Entire crop populations can die out due to this decreasing diversity. This is dangerous because diversity has been known to have helped keeping soil healthy as well as preventing toxins from building up over long period of time.
Another issue concerning agricultural biotechnology is that it can cause new antibiotic strains of bacteria to emerge, due to antibiotic resistant genes. If pests/bacteria become more and more resistant to chemicals, pesticides and such, we will only be injecting them with excess chemicals which further damages the environment. The number of diseases that are resistant to the treatment of common antibiotics could be on the rise and can start to become a serious medical concern although the risk of transfer from plants to bacteria tends to be less than the risk of typical transfer from multiple bacteria types. To take safety measures however, it would be important avoid using these genetic markers.
Opinion
In my opinion, changing organisms at such fundamental level is unnatural. Yes, we have been even cruder with methods of shaping organisms in past centuries but that does not justify our ever growing human greed. If anything, biotechnology has potential as seen, to provide benefits but it needs to be used carefully and ethically. Another objection to agricultural biotechnology is that we are not even sure of what the long term effects on the environment will be, especially since their could be harm to indigenous species and the fact that if weeds develop resistance to the herbicides being used, we would be back at square one. I feel like to ask though we have been tampering with matters of life for as long as we have been farming and we should never be careless about it. Modifying organisms genetically by selective breeding has been a process for thousands of years but some of the new consequences are not understood well enough to continue doing it. We need to proceed with care, with an eye to the damage that we could do just as much as considering the good that we can do. It really is not much different than how we should always be proceeding when dealing with technological issues. We already know that technology had shaped the way we live and is going to continue shaping our future significantly but we act as though we absolutely cannot ignore and get rid of any of it. We should not be giving into all these changed wholeheartedly but completely ruling it out does not seem quite realistic either. Biotechnology allows us to control our own and the evolution of other species faster than the time usually needed for evolution. It does not seem to be avoidable whether individual groups want it to or not, as long as those who are in power still have the amount of power they have currently and that truly terrifies me.