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Weekly UpdatesEXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In the span of a decade, biotechnology has evolved from an R&D initiative to a major force in the agriculture and health care industries. Manufacturers should prepare to feel increasingly the effects of biotech applications as well. While society continues to debate the morality of biotechnology, companies that develop safe applications accepted by a wary public will reap enormous profits.
In 1995, biotechnology was predominantly a research and development initiative. Today in the United States, biotech is earning more than $40 billion in annual revenues. Biotechnology can boast that it is responsible for 190 life-saving medicines, foods that are resistant to disease or require less pesticide, and fuel, plastics, paper, and other manufactured goods made with a lighter environmental footprint.
This leading-edge area of technology is not relegated solely to the wealthy nations of Europe and America. India, China, South Africa, and even Cuba are moving into innovative and dynamic realms of biotechnology as well.
Biotechnology is really biotechnologies
Biotechnology in the broadest sense is using biological processes or elements (bio) to solve needs or problems (technology). By applying engineering, technology, and science principles, scientists can improve the health, quality, and utility of plants and animals by altering their constitution. This new body of technology is expected to be the next major driver of global economic growth.
Manipulating biological processes is hardly a newsworthy event. Humans have used living organisms or their products for commercial purposes since recorded history. And major scientific developments in the past 100 years that have greatly contributed to our quality of life also fall under this definition of biotechnology Examples include a hybrid corn introduced in the 1920s that renders remarkable yields and the isolation of streptomycin as an effective antibiotic for tuberculosis.
However, biotechnology as an industry is suddenly receiving so much attention because in the past two decades, new technologies have helped scientists literally see, isolate, and use cells and biological molecules, the smallest parts of organisms. In reality, biotechnologies is a collection of several technologies that leverage the cell's manufacturing capabilities and put biological molecules such as DNA and proteins to work.
As a result, new companies have been founded and extensive research efforts and financial resources have been directed toward biotechnology. Commercial applications of biotechnology have heavily contributed to the health care and food and agriculture industries. Biotech's third wave is bringing innovative applications to industrial and environmental uses.
Food and agriculture
The development, commercialization, and adoption of biotechnologies with food and agricultural applications have expanded rapidly over the past 20 years and continue to find new applications in the food and agriculture industries. A 2004 study on the global diffusion of plant biotechnology reported a global commercial value of biotech crops of $44 billion for the 2003-2004 growing season. Five countries--the United States, Argentina, China, Canada, and Brazil--accounted for 98 percent of that value, which concentrates on four biotech-enhanced crops: soybeans, cotton, corn, and canola. In addition to the quick adoption of genetically modified crops, biotechnology is also responsible for hundreds of biopesticides and other agricultural products being used to improve our food supply and to reduce dependence on conventional chemical pesticides. Significant global controversy exists over the safety of biotech applications in these industries. However, food and agricultural biotechnology is yielding higher productivity and solving many farmers' long-standing challenges.
Better crop disease diagnosis. An important but underreported effect of biotechnology is plant disease diagnosis. One of the most important aspects of managing a plant disease is to identify it correctly While some diseases can be diagnosed quickly by visual examination, many others require laboratory testing that can take days or weeks and is relatively insensitive. Time can be critical in this phase to prevent plant injury, especially with high-value cash crops and turf grass. The specificity, economics, and speed of biotech techniques are resulting in new products that will complement or replace time-consuming laboratory procedures.
Disease- and insect-resistant crops have higher yields. After disease diagnosis, genetically engineering crops to be disease- and insect-resistant was a natural next step. Since its commercial advent, the uptake of genetically modified (GM) crops has been astounding. Many commercial growers have adopted the technology for a diversity of GM crops, many of which have been made impervious to pests, herbicides, and even drought. As of 2002, 75 percent of soybeans, 33 percent of corn, and 70 percent of cotton grown in the United States were genetically modified cultivars. Less than 10 years after the first commercial biotech crop was planted in 1996, GM crops are now grown in 18 countries, with research and development conducted in another 45. Given the success of bioengineered crops, growers and consumers have come to expect an abundance of high-quality farm products from GM harvests.
Feeding an expanding population. Crop breeding programs have been responsible for remarkable advances in agricultural productivity. However, under traditional crossbreeding methods, producing a corn variety with higher yields or natural resistance to insects might take dozens of generations. Plant biotechnologies offer more efficient crossbreeding techniques to help improve crop production by providing natural protection for plants, improving a plant's herbicide tolerance, and developing plants that are more resistant to environmental stresses.
Increased productivity will help feed a growing global population. In 1900, the global population was approximately 1.6 billion. A century later, our numbers have grown to 6 billion and will peak in 2030 at 9 billion to 10 billion. To keep pace with this expansion, food production will have to double on existing farmland. Plant biotechnology is considered a viable solution to growing food demands, especially in the developing world, where population growth is highest.
Not only can biotech boost productivity, but through a process termed biofortification, staple crops can be modified to enhance diets that are often lacking essential nutrients. For example, golden rice expresses vitamin A, a critical nutrient missing in the diets of many rural Asians.
Though GM cultivars were the first biotech products to enter food supplies and markets, a host of other animal products and applications await approval and release. One such example is salmon that have been genetically engineered to develop faster, grow larger, and reproduce more frequently
Research and economic development. There is a global battle for building agricultural biotech expertise. North America is the leader in plant biotechnology research with the greatest funding. But China is emerging as another leader for both agricultural and health biotech, ranking second to the United States in funding.
Sixty-one other countries are engaged in agricultural biotech research, development, and production, with Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, and India as important centers of influence. These governments hope that heavy investments in biotech research will improve both agricultural production and rural incomes. South Africa, ranking 6th in acreage with biotech varieties, has already approved genetically modified corn, cotton, and soybeans. Argentina and Brazil are leading Latin America and the Caribbean into biotech agriculture. India has more than 20 academic and research institutions involved in plants biotech research covering 16 crops. Western Europe also promises to be a center of influence in crop biotechnology
As more developing countries grant approvals to existing and new biotech crops, some studies estimate a fivefold increase over the next 10 years in the global value of biotech crops to $210 billion. Aside from meeting the demands of growing populations, it is also estimated that developing countries adopting these crops could raise their gross domestic product by 2 percent. Regardless of development status, GM crops are just a beginning in food and agriculture biotech applications. With so many possibilities and the expensive nature of R&D, countries would do well to concentrate their research dollars on developing areas of niche expertise and build critical alliances with other countries to share knowledge, resources, and risk.
Health care
Agricultural biotechnology is not the only battleground. Health care biotech has rapidly become a global focus of research as well. This second wave of biotech applications offers many potential uses.
Diagnostics. Biotechnology applications can be cheaper, more accurate, and quicker to provide results. New biotech methods can diagnose infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, AIDS, and papilloma virus, in addition to inherited disorders like cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia within hours rather than days or weeks. Many common tests can be done on site rather than at a laboratory, some rendering results in as little as minutes.
Access to cheaper tests that can be done on site has immediate benefits for poorer communities and people in developing countries. The portability of many biotech tests is improving the way health care is provided. Tests can be administered on site and many are reliant on color-coded results. Just like a home pregnancy test, this means that results can be interpreted without technically trained staff or expensive laboratory equipment.
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