Importance and harmful effects of biotechnology?

Question

Importance and harmful effects of biotechnology?

Answer 1

Biotechnology is the devlopment of industrial processes using lving organisms or the modification of living organisms for industrail purposes.

Examples of Biotechnology:-

Brewing, without biotechnology (the use of yeast to ferment sugars) there would be no beer, no wine, no vodka, no whisky. Ethanol - the alcohol produced in brewing - is also used in laboratories as a sterilising agent.

Making cheese and yoghurt, these are produced from milk.

Manufacture of drugs and medicines - human insulin for the treatment of diabetes is manufactured by genetically modified bacteria, this insulin is better suited to the previous method of extracting insulin from the pancreas of pigs, not only as this insulin was more suited to the human body but also meant that this treatment was available to those who could not use pig's insulin for moral or religious reasons, vegetarians, Jews or Muslims for example

Importance of Biotechnology

1)Improve yield from crops

2)Reduced vulnerability of crops to environmental stresses

3)Increased nutritional qualities of food crops

4)Improved taste, texture or appearance of food

5)Reduced dependence on fertilizers, pesticides and other agrochemicals

6)Production of novel substances in crop plants

The disadvantages for using genetic modification in agriculture are:

1. Some people are allergic to GM

2. Genes might flow by wind or be carried by animals to contaminate nearby plants

3. Scientists worries that plant-eating insects and weeds will develop resistance to BT crops leading to the creation of super-bags or weeds that cannot be destroyed

4. Some people argued that BT crops maybe poisonous to wildlife or humans

5. Companies often hold patents on GM seeds and licence and protect these patents. Meaning that the genome (including the human genome) is copyrighted. God is yet to sue for prior art.

However, it could also be argued that GM crops have advantages too. Seeds could be modified to grow in conditions where naturally they wouldn't, this arugment is often used to support the use of GM crops in the 3rd world where staple crops such as wheat or barley do not grow so readily.

"GM(Genitically modified) plants could nevertheless provide a means of significantly improving human health, first of all by supplying better quality food. Plants could be deprived of their most harmful ingredients (such as lipids which are bad for cholesterol) or enriched with molecules of nutritional benefit, the latter of particular benefit to southern countries.

European laboratories recently developed a 'golden rice' enriched with carotene. This molecule is a precursor of vitamin A and could therefore help correct the nutritional deficiencies affecting millions of people. Another example is research aimed at increasing the lycopene content of tomatoes. This molecule has beneficial anti-oxidising effects which reduce the risk of prostate tumours." http://europa.eu.in

Best Wishes :)