“When we are able to grow the resources we need,
we will finally be on the road to sustainability”
Humans have long been exploiting the environment and resources that we have, we have been constantly taking more than we can replenish and this is not a sustainable solution as we have finite resources. The quote provides a rather interesting view. If we could grow resources we need, the earth would be under less pressure and we are on the way to sustainability. This does not only refer to growing agriculture, but also, to develop technology to "grow" fossil fuels that we used to think we non renewable forms of energy. The possibilities are endless and exciting! Whether we reach that level of sustainability would depend on whether we have the technology to do it in the future.
We also talked about the various aspects of agribiology, including the famous topic of genetic modification and selective breeding. Selective breeding involves breeding animals based on their qualities and traits. For example, a chicken farmer would only breed chickens that have good meat, and not allow the skinny chickens to breed. As a result of years of selective breeding, farmists (a new term introduced by Prof) are able to isolate the good genes and this results in chickens that have all the good traits. Genetic modification refers to modifying a specific gene in an organism to enable it to have better traits. For example, there are genetically modified crops that are modified to resist adverse weather changes and have bigger and healthy fruits.
Genetically modified food have generated a lot of controversy. There are die hard supporters and haters of GM food. Some against GM will argue that GM food is a practice that is playing God and on top of that, there is no proof that there are no harmful side effects to GM food. Supporters of GM food believe that it helps to increase productivity and it helps us to produce better tasting food. In my opinion, selective breeding itself is already a form of GM, just that we are not zooming in on the specific gene. Since rapid advancements in technology have allowed us to zoom into the specific gene and modify the specific trait, I do not see what is wrong with GM food. It is however true that GM food might have side effects, but this should not be a primary concern to feeding people who face extreme food shortages. As mentioned by Nobel Peace Laureate Norman E. Borlaug, the poor do not have enough to think of harmful side effects when they do not have food to eat in the first place. Technology is already available and exists, but the issue that we face is whether it would be allowed to be used in the rest of the world. On a side note, the labeling of GM food is important is I believe that all consumers should have the right to choose whether they want to eat GM food or not. Taking that choice away from a consumer is akin to removing a basic human right of a human.
Another interesting innovation from industrial life sciences that we talked about was the production of spider silk. Spider silk has high tensile strength and it has many industrial applications. For example, it can be used to make clothing or rope materials. I was surprised to find out that a group of researchers have used genetic modification to allow goats to produce spider silk. Wierd but true! The spider gene is inserted into the cell of the goat and the silk produced from the goat can be "milked" directly from the goat. Is this right? This may sound wrong now, but I feel that as our need for resources increases due to a higher population and consumption levels, mankind might be forced to resort to such measures to meet our consumption needs, no matter what the ethical implications that this might bring about. This is actually an example of how we can grow what we need.
One aspect of environmental life sciences that is rapidly developing is the concept of waste management. What if we could produce something that we throw away? This would greatly help in creating a sustainable environment for our world today. Singapore is a practices one application of this technology by filtering waste water to become drinkable water. Water is saved and there is a smaller strain in resources in our world.
I am also relieved that my individual presentation for TWC is finally over and I am finally done with it. I felt that I did a decent job, so the next assignment that I'll be looking at would be the individual report. To summary the contents of my presentation, I talked about why we needed technology to be applied in the 21st century. There are many hungry people in the world today and with the population set to hit 9 billion in 2050, there would be more shortages if technology is not applied in agriculture. Technology, in essence, allows us access to 3 rights. 1) Food- a basic human right, 2) Choice- a consumer right 3) Sustainability- environmentally right. Allow me to share a video on YouTube as I feel that it is a good representation of my presentation:
I feel that the session was really interesting as it provided many new insights and I was rather familiar with the topic, especially about Biobusiness in agriculture. Perhaps we could have talked more about Industrial applications in Biotechnology, how it is actually practiced in the biggest and most famous companies in our world today. I would rate this lesson a 9.5/10.
Lenard
No comments:
Post a Comment