Download PDF - SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center

30 BIO LIFE January – March 2005
WHAT IS BIOTECHNOLOGY
Biotechnology is any technique that uses a living organism
(e.g., plants, animals, microorganisms) or parts of it to improve
another living organism for a specific purpose. Mankind has been
using biotechnology to, for instance, produce cheese, soy sauce,
bread and beer, as well as lifesaving antibiotics and vaccines for
rabies and hepatitis B.
IS BIOTECHNOLOGY A NEW THING IN SCIENCE
A big NO. While it may sound so sophisticated or mysterious—thus,
something to be afraid of—biotechnology has been
with mankind through the centuries, having been used, as the
above cited information states, for both household (cheese and
vinegar) and medicinal (antibiotics, vaccines) purposes, as well as
for improving crops (interspecific
and intergenetic crossbreeding).
In recent years, the most
significant and well-publicized strides in biotechnology have been
made in agricultural applications. With the help of biotechnology,
scientists seeking to find ways to feed people have come up with plant
strains that are either more productive (and therefore can yield more on
the same land area and the same inputs), or are pest- and diseaseresistant
(and therefore substantially preserve yield and reduce crop
losses while increasing the food on the table), or are even more
enriched and thus boost health—or a combination or all of the above.
No less than the United Nations Human Development Report
2001 declares that biotechnology offers “the hope of crops with
higher yields, pest- and drought-resistant properties and superior
nutritional characteristics—especially for farmers in ecological
zones left behind by the green revolution.”
By the BIOTECH FOR LIFE MEDIA & ADVOCACY CENTER
HOW CAN THE PHILIPPINES BENEFIT
FROM BIOTECHNOLOGY
The primary benefit of biotechnology is in agriculture,
considering the Philippine situation: a fast-growing population,
increasingly less land to cultivate, and the rising cost of farm
inputs and of production risks. Such negative factors are being
compounded by the steady liberalization of world trade, with
tariff barriers for agricultural products being knocked down
even as some developed countries continue to subsidize their
farm sectors.
As it is, developed countries are already growing biotech
crops on an estimated land hectarage exceeding 40 million
hectares. We can only keep up by applying biotechnology to
complement the conventional methods. With biotechnology, the
precarious level of forest cover
will not be further jeopardized
because there will be no need to
clear forests to produce agricultural land. With biotechnology,
plants grown on existing land area, as well as those on poor
soils or stressful environments, can be made more productive.
Savings can be attained from cutting down on agrochemical
inputs such as pesticides. Nutritional deficiencies among
Filipinos can be curbed because biotech allows staples like rice
to be enriched with vitamins and minerals.
IS BIOTECHNOLOGY SAFE TO HUMANS
AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Because it has been extensively researched and reviewed,
especially as an agricultural development, the level of safety of
biotechnology is repeatedly validated in thousands of field tests