BioBusiness and Agriculture

Agriculture and the Environment

When we are finally able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability

– Gurinder Singh

The last class was on Bio business and the effects it can have on the field (haha punny) of agriculture. Technology has had a very important role in establishing better methods of farming and harvesting crops. An interesting example was that of the Rockefeller Foundation and Golden Rice. Some of the key points of how this golden rice has benefitted – Vitamin A is required for human growth and our intake of it is determined by our diet.  Many people and children suffer from Vitamin A deficiency and this causes many premature deaths.  Through genetic engineering, the rice has a gene which leads to the production of Vitamin A inserted; the accumulation of this Vitamin A gives the rice its golden colour. By supplying this type of rice seeds to farmers in less developed countries, many children will be able to get the supply of Vitamin A they need.  I think Article 27 of the Universal Human Rights charter is very apt in this case.

Article 27

·         (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

·         (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Moving on, Prof also talked about how people who profess to not eat genetically modified foods should think twice, as there are many foods that fall under that category which we may not know about. For example, prof mentioned tomato ketchup and the kiwi fruit. There is a large list of genetically modified foods and foods like tomato and corn can fall into that list. This ties in with one of the presentations on the growing of meat in the lab! I find this really quite intriguing and I for one would not really have much of a problem eating lab grown meat. The human population will require larger and larger amounts of food which I believe in vitro meat production can sustain. Currently, we eat chicken from KFC with no regard of the chemicals the chickens are plied with to grow at a faster rate. After seeing how the chickens are treated just so that we can enjoy a fried piece of chicken, I have sworn off KFC for good. I would rather eat lab grown meat than eat chickens which have been ill-treated just so that they can fill the quota of production. I think most people would be rather squeamish about eating lab grown meat however as with time and more information about it gets passed on to the masses, I am sure almost everybody will take to it.

There was also a presentation on the use of Algae as a biofuel. There is research being done in the field and from what Melvin pointed out it could possibly help us off our dependence on environmentally unfriendly fossil fuel consumption. As algae can grow extremely fast and it can be cultivated in the sea, it can potentially save our earth. More research will have to be done in this field to make it commercially viable however. Hopefully there will be a day when all our cars run on biofuels which are produced without harming the environment.

Another article which I found really quite interesting was the one on plumpy nut. Before the presentation I have never heard of such a thing and I was quite inspired by the end of the presentation. It is really a case of a simple idea being able to affect millions of people for the better. Plumpy nut is really a case of a product that really is broken down to its simplest objectives, which is effectiveness, application and cost. It is relatively cheap, is easy to eat (it is in a paste like form hence young children can easily eat it by themselves), and it is nutritious and helps the children stop the onset of malnutrition.

In conclusion, the lesson was interesting and I learned a substantial amount from the presentations. The discussions were quite good even though we did not have much time due to the number of presentation. I give the lesson a 7.5 and look forward to the lesson after the break.