Someone sent me a notification about a report about biotech crops by the ISAAA (The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications). According to the report, biotech crops have experienced remarkable growth over the last dozen years. The report also points out some socioeconomic benefits of biotech crops, namely the ability of poor or struggling farmers to increase their income by growing more crops for less costs.
From what I know, scientists use biotechnology with agriculture to genetically engineer crops to increase the yield of the crops.
Some people believe that biotechnology can help reduce world hunger by producing more food to feed the hungry. However, for the most part, I do not believe that because the world already has enough food to feed anyone.
Nonetheless, the ISAAA report points out that poor farmers can increase their production and reduce their costs with biotech crops. That does make sense. The farmers that use biotech crops can make more money with them, and that will help alleviate poverty when poor farmers use the technology to increase their income.
I always feel skeptical of newly powerful technology because I do not think humankind has achieved the required social responsibility to make it safe to posses the power of technology. Large amounts of individuals will each choose to adopt a new technology that helps each of them personally in the short term, but the combined use of the technology could have devastating effects on society as a whole. For example, consider the pollution and deaths caused by automobiles, or the threat of the technology of nuclear bombs.
Technology can help greatly when used wisely with the proper social responsibility, but it can cause devastation and self-destruction when not combined with wisdom and social responsibility.
Wisdom and social responsibility come about most of all from knowledge and a well-informed public. For that reason, I appreciate that the ISAAA provides information and reports about crop biotechnology. In fact, their website has a knowledge center, in which they say, “we believe that a transparent, science-based debate is essential for maximizing the potential benefits of crop biotechnology…”
I agree.
What do you think? How do you feel about crop biotechnology? Post your answers to that and your comments on this post in this thread at the World Hunger and Poverty Forums. We welcome all viewpoints.