Takeaways:
- Genetic engineering realises the tremendous increase of crop supply and the advancement of nutritional quality.
- The wonderful techniques have brought benefits to those who can afford.
- Concerns on food security issues are raised and questioned.
The Promise of Agribiology
Genetic modification technique can speed up the process of harvesting and increase the supply of crops produced every year. It allows us to improve the nutritional quality of our food crop species. This seems to be a solution to world hunger in the Third World countries. Recombinant DNA techniques also enable the transgenic crops to have higher tolerance to some serious insect pets and ameliorate the soil degradation issues. The reduction of herbicide usage has greatly lower the costs of production while alleviating soil degradation problems raised by excessive chemical usage.
The Applications of Agribiology
Is agribology really the key to eradication of world hunger? For now, I guess the answer is NO!
Those resource-poor farmers are unable to gain access to the product of biotechnology as most genetic modification research is done by private enterprise, which patents its inventions. It is understandable that intellectual property rights have to be issued to the contributors in consideration of their research effort and the high research and implementation costs incurred. However, public sectors should also step in, take into account of the reasonable duration of patent rights and legislate policies that not only protects the private sectors, but also benefits the people and the less fortunate ones. Only when intellectual property rights and regulations are more mature, then will the elimination of world hunger come into the picture.
Besides the genetic engineering and the governmental organisations playing a role in surviving those people from starvation, people from the developed countries such as America should be constantly reminded of their over-consumption of food. As the supply of food production increases, the demand for food increases excessively in the rich countries. Plus the patent rights and the affordability for genetic modified food, we should say that the supply of crops IN THE DEVELOPED COUNTRIES increases to meet the rising demand. People take the sufficient amount of food for granted. Food wastage is common seen. Eventually, the problem on world hunger is barely touched on.
Food Security of GM Food
The potential risks of consuming genetic modified food are still under question. How safe is the artificial food? Do its benefits outweigh the risks the society has to take? There are a lots of uncertainties to which agricultural scientists could not give a finite answer.
I am not the expert here and I do not know much about the complexities of modified genes. However, from the consumer point of view, I believe there is no risk-free thing in the world. Without the presence of GM food, we may now worry about the chemicals used for agriculture and how those chemicals may potentially threaten our lives. There is also going to be something we will raised our doubts about. Either it is the non-organic food or the non-organic food or perhaps other stuffs we have yet to uncover. Researchers are here to provide more choices for us. What we should do is to choose what we think is best for us instead of criticising researchers' new findings. Therefore, I am also on the side of food labelling.
Another thought in mind: GM food may be to showcase Darwin's theory of evolution - "Survival of the fittest". Our body may evolve and adapt to the changing of food varieties as time goes by.
Session Rating: 9/10
