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Can biotechnology help solve the food crisis?
Made Popular May 30 2008
The dramatic increase in global food prices by 83% over the past three years has literally brought the world to its knees. Envoys from 26 Latin American and Caribbean countries are meeting today in Caracas, Venezuela to discuss the issue. A three-day UN food crisis summit in Rome too will follow to draw up a policy to tackle the crisis on Tuesday. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the price rise phenomenon is here to stay for long. Experts believe that biotechnology seems to be a viable answer right now. However, can the controversial technology really turn out to be a panacea for 6.6 billion people and growing?
RSS 
Vikas
May 30 2008
solan,
India
as over all food consumption has gone up, relative to the amount of supply, and we need to find a way to deal with these crisis the technology may help out in solving this problem the biotechnology may technologies that can improving agricultural productivity in desert areas where the production is nill
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Biotechnology can solve the world’s food problems but then again, there are plenty of issues like the nutrition content and the costs involved which need sorting out. We need some serious, quick action on this front before we hear of more people dying hunger deaths.
What do we target when we talk about biotechnology. We hope that there would be an increase in the level of production but is that the sole way to counter this problem? There are a lot of issues involved with BT despite the fact that it is capable of increasing yields.
this meeting is again much to do for nothing. I may be too hard on the issue but can't hold myself to say so. yes we are just arranging the meetings on the sensitive issues but that is ending up in nothing. the result is appearing in form of heavy rains, droughts, environmental pollutions and so on so forth. Even G8 meeting last year that was concentrated on the emission of the green house gases and increasing pollution ended up in nothing substantial. is this meeting really gonna solve or taking measures atleast to bring food prices down? well, frankly speaking, I doubt.
The food of the prices are never going to come down for it isn’t just the price rise in food prices that is the sole cause. Inflation is now a global phenomenon and one can hardly single out a product that hasn’t been hit hard by the fact. Petroleum, Steel, Consumer Durables, Food Grains and the list just goes on.
It’s Friday and time for inflation figures. Talking about inflation, India has seen it skyrocket past the 8 point mark to end up as 8.1 percent. This comes even as the government at the center is grappling with the issue of oil price rise.
whether biotechnology is a solution or not is not as grave an issue but how serious are we certainly is. I have always been skeptical about high-level science. Science might be able to solve our problems in a short term, however, it might also send human beings to hell in the future. We should comply with Nature, as problems only can be ultimately solved through measures deriving from natural rules.
Someone sometime back spoke of a second green revolution for the state of Punjab in India and I guess that should be a case for the entire World. We humans desperately need a green revolution again and it wont be bad at all to return to the basics.
A second green revolution is certainly the need of the day as food for all is becoming a huge issue. There has been quite some talk about one in the near future though it is fully not clear as to how the government intends to implement it.
As I said Jay, it would be about reverting back to the basics of farming. Something that could see each country producing sufficient amount of food grain for its own need and would export the same only in case of a Surplus. It should be a green revolution that should be thought over and not BT usage in farming. The Latter is a temporary solution not a permanent remedy
its not just that they want to help the food crisis...these people who have suggested biotech to get rid of the crisis are thinking far ahead. I suspect that biotechnology promoters will eventually get their way, but this will be a disaster for the agricultural industry, as Japan and Europe (and perhaps India) will halt imports of western produce. It will also be used as a tool in trade wars; to deny U.S. access to their markets and thus bolster their own agro sector.
I guess biotech would be an elite solution to the problem. It would take time and be costly. Some things cannot and should not be changed. Farming for the instance. A 60,000 crore loan waiver seems shining bright but actually will mean nothing. Since there isn’t much initiation from Govt.’s side.
Produce more food and less babies!
Biotechnology or any other technology, nothing can work successfully if there is no serious tab on the fast increasing population figures. Strict family planning is the need of the hour, though it may sound out of context in this forum.
Biotechnology or any other technology, nothing can work successfully if there is no serious tab on the fast increasing population figures. Strict family planning is the need of the hour, though it may sound out of context in this forum.
Certainly, biotechnology can be one of the solutions to fight back food shortage. But the issue remains on what programs, particularly on the food crop production, that we must focus on.
Although this is not a panacea to solve the global crises, but given the right perspective and viable set of priorities, biotechnology can provide a handful of solutions to our existing food problems.
Although this is not a panacea to solve the global crises, but given the right perspective and viable set of priorities, biotechnology can provide a handful of solutions to our existing food problems.