Chapter 10: Feeding the World
2 10.3 Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering
Agricultural biotechnology is a range of tools that include both traditional breeding techniques and more modern lab-based methods. Modern biotechnology today includes the tools of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is the name for the methods that scientists use to introduce new traits or characteristics to an organism. This process results in genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. For example, plants may be genetically modified to produce characteristics to enhance the growth or nutritional profile of food crops.
BENEFITS OF GENETIC ENGINEERING
Advocates of modern biotechnology and generic engineering say that the application of biotechnology in agriculture has resulted in benefits to farmers, producers, and consumers.
Enhanced nutrition
Advances in biotechnology may provide consumers with foods that are nutritionally-enriched (Figure 1), longer-lasting, or that contain lower levels of certain naturally occurring toxins present in some food plants. For example, developers are using biotechnology to try to reduce saturated fats in cooking oils, reduce allergens in foods, and increase disease-fighting nutrients in foods. Biotechnology may also be used to conserve natural resources, enable animals to more effectively use nutrients present in feed, decrease nutrient runoff into rivers and bays, and help meet the increasing world food and land demands.
Cheaper and more manageable production
Biotechnology may provide farmers with tools that can make production cheaper and more manageable. For example, some biotechnology crops can be engineered to tolerate specific herbicides, which makes weed control simpler and more efficient. Other crops have been engineered to be resistant to specific plant diseases and insect pests, which can make pest control more reliable and effective, and/or can decrease the use of synthetic pesticides. These crop production options can help countries keep pace with demands for food while reducing production costs.
Improved pest control
Biotechnology has helped to make both pest control and weed management safer and easier while safeguarding crops against disease. For example, genetically engineered insect-resistant cotton has allowed for a significant reduction in the use of persistent, synthetic pesticides that may contaminate groundwater and the environment. In terms of improved weed control, herbicide-tolerant soybeans, cotton, and corn enable the use of reduced-risk herbicides that break down more quickly in soil and are non-toxic to wildlife and humans.
Concerns about Genetically Modified Organisms
The complexity of ecological systems presents considerable challenges for experiments to assess the risks and benefits of GMOs. Assessing such risks is extremely difficult, because both natural and human-modified systems are highly complex, and fraught with uncertainties that may not be clarified until long after an experimental introduction ha