Technology and Environment, Agriculture

“When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability.” – Gurinder Shahi

The world is growing really fast today, may be too fast. We are using massive amount of raw materials every day for production and consumption. Much of the raw materials are non renewable resources such as fossil fuel, wood… If we continue consume non renewable resources even at reducing amount, sooner or later we will have to face the shortage of resources. Prof points out this problem today in class and I think it is an up-to-date problem of society. As Prof suggests, the only way for human to attain sustainability is to grow our own resources. In fact, technology advance is enabling human to do that. People are developing different sources for energy, different ways of growing food thank to biotechnology advance.

                                                                                                                        

Controversial topics in agribiology:

-          Agribiology vs Agribiotechnology

-          Farmer of farmist

-          Growing food vs growing energy resources:

In order to provide enough energy for industries, people take a lot of efforts to produce energy. People are taking farming land to create energy resources. But that action is followed by the shortage of farming land. The increase in price of food shows that people are taking too much valuable farm land to grow energy resources and therefore food is becoming scarce.  We need to provide enough food first hand and also produce energy for economic growth. How to balance between food and energy? We have to find new method of managing land, use it more productively and effectively.

-          GM or not GM:

GM food is a revolutionary innovation of biotechnology. Plants are genetically modified to be more nutritious, have bigger sizes or resistant to pest and insects. GM food has many advantages. It reduces soil erosion, protects environment and farmers’ health. Moreover, GM plants reduce production cost and produce higher crop yield. GM plants are even considered as the way to provide enough food for the world since it is an effective way of growing food for growing population.

However, as I mentioned in my presentation, GM food brings about potential risks to human health. Scientists should conduct more researches to figure out whether all GM food is safe for human because health is a serious issue. If GM food adversely affects health, consumers must be informed and protected. Moreover, the government also has to be more responsible and concern more about the consumption of GM food. GM food needs suitable regulations and labeling system so that customers can choose what they want to eat.

Food security:

According to FAO – Food and Agriculture Organization, food security is a condition where all people at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. As the population is growing fast and the gap of rich and poor is larger and larger, food security becomes increasingly important issue. With less land and bigger population size, how can we manage to feed all people in the world? In order to attain the goal of food security, there are many areas have to be changed for the better. Biotechnology will enable human to provide enough food for everyone since biobusiness is still in the “valley opportunities.” Disruptive innovations in biotechnology will create new ways of production with higher efficiency so that people can develop to the summit of biobusiness landscape.

Personal rating:

9/10. Today class is really interesting since the topic agriculture is really relevant to daily lives. And I have my first individual presentation in SMU.

Topics for further discussion:

1. Should society replace GM food with organic food?
2. Is GM food is dispensable to provide food security?