Abstract
Supporters of agricultural biotechnology have maintained a high enthusiasm for its role in improving agricultural yields and enhancing sustainability, for instance, in Africa. However, critics are deeply skeptical. This chapter sketches some of the main arguments on both sides to provide a summary analysis. The discussion includes multiple climatic, socioeconomic, and public policy drivers that have collided with the ability of the average person to achieve food security. If food security is to be understood as a matter of human health, then its definitions and designs must recognize food's many roles in creating positive public health outcomes. Hence, the discussion expands to include an integrative model of food security linking sociocultural, public policy, and ecological aspects to public health. The chapter concludes that extensive work must be done to steer policy initiatives toward common sense sustainability paths to achieve food security and/or sovereignty.
TopBackground On Agbiotech
Agricultural biotechnology is the ability to translate and apply genomic knowledge using technological and scientific techniques to accelerate breeding of complex plant, animal, and microorganism traits leading to finished products. Central to this process is the scientist’s understanding of DNA, the main constituent of chromosomes of organisms, which are manipulated to increase agricultural productivity. “By identifying genes that may confer advantages on certain crops, biotechnology enhances breeders’ ability to make improvements in crops and livestock (BRIEF #1, 2004).”
It is a marked departure from about 10,000 years ago since traditional farmers have improved wild plants and animals through the selection and breeding of desirable characteristics using basic methods. This practice led to the domestication of plants and animals commonly used in crop and livestock agriculture. But advancements in the twentieth century and beyond, brought forth sophisticated methods which enable breeders to select traits resulting in increased yield, disease and pest resistance, drought resistance and enhanced flavor (“What is Agricultural Biotechnology?,” 2004).
Methods commonly used in agbiotech are:
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Genetic Engineering: Which transfers useful characteristics (such as resistance to a disease) into a plant, animal or microorganism by inserting genes (DNA) from another organism
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Molecular Marking: Which examines the DNA of an organism to precisely select plants or animals that possess a desirable gene, even in the absence of a visible trait.
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Molecular Diagnostics: Which detects genes or gene products that are very precise and specific to more accurately diagnose crop and livestock diseases.
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Vaccination: For protection against some infectious illnesses in for example, chickens and cattle.
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Tissue Culturing: The regeneration of plants in the laboratory from disease-free planting materials for crops such as citrus, pineapples, avocados, mangoes, bananas, coffee and papaya (“What is Agricultural Biotechnology?,” 2004).
Key Terms in this Chapter
GMO: A GMO (genetically modified organism) is the result of a laboratory process where genes from the DNA of one species are extracted and artificially forced into the genes of an unrelated plant or animal to achieve an improved product. This process also may be called either genetic engineering (GE) or genetic modification (GM). GMOs are also known as “transgenic” organisms.
Food Sovereignty: Is a term coined by members of Via Campesina in 1996 and refers to the right of everyone to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.
Sustainability: The pursuit of global environmental viability via avoidance of the depletion of natural resources to maintain an ecological balance.
Agbiotech: A collection of scientific techniques to improve plants, animals, and microorganisms.
Public Health: The science of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health and efficient functioning.
Agroecology: Agroecology is the study of the methods of ecological processes applied to agricultural production systems. These methods provide ecological principles applied for the design and management of sustainable and resource-conserving agricultural systems.
Food Security: When all people have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet the dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.