Genetics & Business
Genetics & Business
Genetics & Business
Business
Contemporary Issues in
Management
Bhisham Padha 45 MBA 07
18 April 2009
The term "genetic
engineering” was coined
in Jack Williamson's
science fiction novel
Dragon's Island,
published in 1951, two
years before James
Watson and Francis
Crick showed that DNA
could be the medium of
transmission of genetic
information.
Perspectives
Food
Clothes
Medicines &
The Next Kentucky Fried Chicken
‘We haven’t had a single catastrophe
to engender such sweeping public
apprehension over genetically
modified organisms, and yet so
many people remain opposed to
them.’
Food insecurity will continue in Africa because of world population explosion. The rate of global population
increase currently stands 3.5 percent against an increase in food production of 2.5 percent and it is expected
that Africa will bear the brunt of the shortfall.
Experts are of the opinion that biotechnology can make up for the difference since it assures higher yields,
nutritionally rich varieties, reduced costs of production, less damage from pests and diseases and, more
importantly for Africa, drought resistant varieties.
Africa was bypassed by the green revolution, now benefitting countries like india and Pakistan, that were
begging for food in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Consequently, Africa is not self reliant in terms of food
and relies on food aid and food imports from these countries that were food insecure two decades ago. It
beats logic that Kenya, whose 80 percent of the economy depends on agriculture, has been reduced to an
importer of basic food like maize, wheat, rice, sugar, among others.
The biotechnology wave, regarded as God's territory is now sweeping across the globe and it is upon African
countries to decide on what aspects of the technology to adopt for their own good.
Encompassing a broad spectrum ranging from tissue culture to genetic engineering, its potential is limitless
and implications are both positive and negative, but what is clear is that it holds the potential of ensuring
food security for the continent's millions facing starvation.
Commending on the new technology, renowned scientist, Norman Borlaug, says "You need it to further
improve yields so that you can produce the food that's needed on the soil that's well adapted to agricultural
production. Or you will be pushed into cutting down more of our forests."
Grasp tomorrow’s challenge. By 2050, say
United Nations’ experts, our planet must double
Monsanto is an agricultural food production to feed an anticipated
company. We apply innovation population of 9.3 billion people. (That figure is
and technology to help farmers 40 percent higher than today’s 6.6 billion.)
around the world produce more Then factor in a pressured water supply, an
while conserving more. We energy-supply crunch and climate change. How
help farmers grow yield do we surmount these obstacles? Agricultural
sustainably so they can be innovation holds a key solution – and Monsanto
successful, produce healthier pledges to do our part.
foods, better animal feeds and By 2030, Monsanto commits to help farmers
more fiber, while also reducing produce more and conserve more by:
agriculture's impact on our Developing improved seeds that help farmers
environment. double yields from 2000 levels for corn,
soybeans and cotton, with a $10 million grant
pledged to improve wheat and rice yields.
Conserving resources through developing seeds
that use one-third fewer key resources per unit
of output to grow crops while working to lessen
habitat loss and improve water quality.
Helping improve the lives of all farmers who use
our products, including an additional five million
people in resource-poor farm families by 2020.
++++
• Producing Human Insulin - help those
with diabetes
• Creating New Organs - save lives
• Gene Therapy - fight diseases
• Agricultural Biotechnology - increase
productivity, make plants better
-
more independent studies are needed
some tests have shown animals fed GM
crops showed profound changes in their
livers, kidneys and hearts, and most
alarming is the damage to the
reproductive organs and DNA function.
Even Monsanto’s own studies on
trangenic corn MON863 showed toxicity
in animals liver and kidneys. The only
human feeding study on GM food,
published in Nature in 2004, found that
genes inserted into GM soybeans
transfered into the DNA of human gut
Health concerns aside, Ellis argues
that tampering with the genetic
makeup of plants can have
unforeseen consequences for plant
life, such as the development of
“super weeds” that are resistant to
pesticides.
it’s also possible that plants “emitting
toxins as a result of modification
could cause natural pests to mutate
into bigger, stronger, more resistant
“genetic pollution” or cross-contamination.
Opponents of genetic modification worry that
pollen from genetically modified fields could
eventually find its way to fields of unmodified
crops, and even to wild plants, potentially
creating untested and unpredictable strains of
plant life.
In 1970, Henry Kissinger said, “Control oil and you control nations;
control food and you control the people.” How do you control
food? By consolidating agricultural interests into what was to be
termed agribusiness, creating genetically modified organisms out
of heritage seeds with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation,
patenting the new seeds, and making sure that these new seeds
are force-fed to U.S. farmers as well as the rest of the world. By
holding the patents on these seeds and requiring farmers to
purchase new seeds every year, the control is complete. Also, by
controlling how these GMO seeds are created, other more sinister
uses come to mind. But first, you must convince the world of your
good intentions. This is accomplished through lies, deception, and
a bit of media manipulation. By promising farmers that this
technology was safe, and would result in increased yields at less
cost, they were more than happy to give it a try. The fact that in
most cases this claim was false had yet to be proven by the
innocent farmers that believed the lie. By the time independent
studies started revealing that GMO is harmful, it was too late, and
the freight train called agri-business was on its way to fulfilling its
purpose – to make as much money as possible by spreading GMO
seeds as far as possible, and thus gaining control of the population
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Environmental and health impacts of GMOs: the evidence
Effects on biodiversity