What is biotechnology?
Biotechnology is an application that uses living organisms to obtain goods, products, or services based on human beings. Since ancient times, humans have carried out biotechnological processes such as fermentation, which have resulted in products such as wine, bread, and beer.
Biotechnology can also be classified by its application:
- Red: human and animal health
- White: chemical, food, environmental
- Gray: environment
- Blue: marine organisms
- Green: agricultural
Agricultural biotechnology
Agricultural biotechnology, or green biotechnology, has allowed the improvement of crops through genetic engineering techniques. These types of crops also referred to as genetically modified or transgenic, are based on 13-15 years of research and an investment of over $ 136 million. Therefore, they comply with rigorous tests relating to human, animal, and environmental safety.
The main characteristics of the biotechnological crops currently on the market are tolerance to insects and herbicides in crops such as soybean, cotton, corn, and canola; tolerance to water stress (drought) in corn and soybeans; color modification in carnations and roses; and resistance to viruses in papaya and beans.
It is expected that in the next 10 years, biotechnological seeds currently in the process of research and development will be released to the market and will be useful in the combating climate change, including corn, soybean, cotton, and rice that make better use of nitrogen, tolerate droughts and provide higher yields.
Benefits of agricultural biotechnology
Biotechnological or genetically modified crops have benefited farmers and consumers throughout their implementation since 1996:
- Help farmers to face the challenges of climate change.
- Higher-quality crops are obtained by increasing the tolerance of crops to insects and/or herbicides.
- They help produce more on less land, thereby contributing to reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture.
- Carbon emissions and soil erosion are reduced by implementing practices such as to-till farming.
- They offer consumers the possibility of having a better experience with the product and obtaining greater nutritional content with products such as potatoes with resistance to bruising and oxidation, apples that do not rust, and golden rice with the additional benefit of beta-carotene in the grain.
