Benefits From Biotechnology

Alleviate undernourishment in the world

Today, the world is home to nearly 6 billion people, and every year brings about 90 million people more. The global human population is expected to reach 10 billion in the year 2040 with a 90 % increase in developing countries. In Canada, most of us are lucky enough to eat three meals a day, everyday, but this is not the case in many regions of the world. Many countries currently do not have an adequate supply of food for their population, leading to a lack of economic policy, an imbalance of resource allocation and further shortages due to continuing population increase. About one third of the population in Africa (170 million) and 20% of the population (530 million) in the Far East, including China, face hunger (Watanabe, 1997).

Nobody should have to face hunger in world where there is actually enough food for everyone, and there is the capacity to produce more if the food producing resources can be managed in a sustainable manner. To live in a healthy and active manner, people require 'food security', a condition that has four dimensions: availability, accessibility, safety and reliability. Factors contributing to food security include biological, technological, ecological and political factors. Environment, soil, nutrients, varieties, and management are all necessary for success, which is always constrained by the most limiting factor; there might be enough land or sunshine or water, but their potential can be neutralized by nutrient depletion, pests and disease outbreak, military conflict, lack of financial resources, lack of marketing infrastructure, etc.

Biotechnology and genetic engineering are among the most effective solutions for achieving food security in low potential zones through better adaptation to environmental stresses such as drought, salinity, pests and diseases. Several engineering strategies are being explored to improve crop plants against environmental stresses such as drought, salinity, high temperatures, frost and pests.

Biotechnology could also alleviate the components of malnourishment of infants in many developing countries. For example, vitamin A deficiency could be greatly reduced by developing cultivars such as sweet potatoes with high vitamin A content. Currently, this crop is a major staple in East and West Africa and in many Asian countries. Similarly, genetic engineering could be applied to developing crops that are high in essential amino acids, such as methionine in legumes and lysine in grains. Such crops are advantageous to infants in poor families, who depend on a limited variety of food materials.

Sustainability and environmental protection

Land productivity must be enhanced to ensure food security. But increasing productivity in a sustainable manner is a real challenge. Plant biotechnology could provide tools amongst the major components of sustainable agriculture and natural resource management such as water and watershed management, soil quality and erosion, integrated nutrient management for crop protection and integrated pest management (IPM) through the development of biopesticides (refer to appropriate place in pesticide section).

Plant breeding could also help alternative agriculture and environmental quality by reducing the use of agri-chemicals that have a negative influence on water and soil quality, and which leave residues in the environment and, consequently, in humans. Plant breeding could also provide appropriate energy varieties to produce biomass energy such as biogas, bio-alcohol and oil from seeds (refer to appropriate place in non-food uses section).

Thus, plant breeding could provide more farm profitability and yield stability, improved food quality and safety, as well as better environmental quality and safety and erosion control. Consequently, the development of new cultivars assists both food productivity and environmental sustainability (Watanabe, 1997).

Biotechnological strategies also offer hope for restoring the environment and protecting endangered species: or example, microorganisms are used to clean up toxic wastes from industrial and oil spills and conservation biologists use genetic methods to identify particular populations of endangered or threatened species.

Analysis and maintenance of biodiversity

Genetic resources are non-renewable and it is essential to conserve them, be it at the species level, gene pool level or at the ecosystem level. The limitations and dangers inherent in the narrow genetic base of many modern cultivars have been stressed after many disasters such as the Irish potato famine of 1840s, when the potato crop was virtually wiped out as the cultivars grown at that time had no resistance to leaf blight disease.

Genetic vulnerability has built up in the genetic structure of landraces through selection by farmers over many generations (landrace: distinct local types, adapted to the many variations and interactions of natural and cultural environments in different regions of the world to which crops species were gradually introduced, Watanabe, 1997). Wild varieties, previously safe in remote, uncultivated areas are being destroyed by agricultural expansion and the widespread use of herbicides. Gene banks, possible thanks to biotechnological advancements, can help to preserve genetic biodiversity.

In 1971 a global network of plant gene banks was established. This network has been coordinated by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a broadly based international consortium that works to strengthen national agricultural research programs in developing countries. The CGIAR supports 17 international agricultural research centers distributed around the world and ensures the conservation of plant species in approximately 450 non-CGIAR institutions in more than 90 countries (Barnum, 1998).

It is also often claimed that genetic engineering would further narrow the genetic base of crops grown (Watanabe, 1997). In fact, a plant variety improved by a gene containing other useful features does not alter the original plant variety: it is a 'different' variety. In conventional breeding, the incorporation of traits and further breeding changes the genetic composition of a plant variety. But genetic engineering simple creates a new variety, distinct from the original one, so that it does not reduce biodiversity.