Please answr in paragraph form. 1. What are the projections for global food dema
ID: 74566 • Letter: P
Question
Please answr in paragraph form.
1. What are the projections for global food demand and how do conventional, organic, and GMO methodologies meet those challenges?
What are the economic challenges of farming GMO’s?
2. What are the environmental risks and benefits of using GMO’s?
How can the risks be minimized?
3. Why has the debate about GMO’s been generalized on the technique to make these things rather than the particular product that has been made?
Discuss how this stereotyping might make regulating new organisms more difficult.
Explanation / Answer
1-- The economic challenges of farming GMO’s include the high cost of the seeds of the GMO. Apart from that GMO may require a large space so as to prevent the gene flow from these GMOs to indigenous plant species. Also only powerful and wealthy agriculture and agrochemical companies might have monopoly over transgenic crops which will lead poor farmers to deprivation.
2- The environmental risks associated with GMO can be precisely evaluated by environmental risk assessment of genetically modified plants. These concerns include:
The risks associated with GMO can be limited by containment that prevents the spread of GMO and its genetic material to the environment.
(A)-Biological containment –
1- Making changes in GMO so that hazards are reduced when they are released deliberately or accidentally into the environment.
2- GM plants to be grown in area where sexually compatible wild or weedy species are not found.
3- Flowers may be covered with bags to screen out insect pollinators or prevent wind pollination.
4- Production of viable pollen may be prevented by using genetic male sterility.
5- Differences in flowering times may be exploited so that GMO pollen is not shed at the time when the sexually compatible plants nearby are receptive.
6- Incorporating genes in chloroplast DNA.
(B)- Geographical containment-
Geographical or spatial isolation (by the use of structures like fences, screens, mesh etc) to confine recombinant organisms preventing the exposure of researcher and the environment to the harmful agents.
3- GMOs are created by insertion of foreign genes (mainly bacterial genes) in plants by transformation (which is sometimes aided by viral vectors). The GMO product at most may be allergenic to the individuals; however a deeper concern lies with the risk of horizontal gene transfer. The transgene may be transferred to indigenous plants having serious consequences including degradation of the gene pool. Also the technique used can be manipulated to create micro-organisms that can serve as agents of biological warfare.
There are discoveries leading to unethical and uncontrollable proliferation of strongly pathogenic new viruses, introduction of some terrible toxin or tumor forming genes into bacteria and using them as deadly bacteriological warfare. Growing apprehensions about the possible military use of genetic engineering and other new biotechnologies are threatening to undermine the international basis on biological weapons.