The Negative Impact Of Biotechnology

Bio technology is the processing of biological agents using knowledge of scientific and engineering principles. (Keener and Hoban et al., 2014) We have been using excessively our natural resources which as a consequence pose a threat to ourselves. Biotechnology was previously used to heal, feed and fuel the world. In the late 20th and earlier 21st centuries, biotechnology has evolved to include development of pharmaceutical therapies and studying of genes to cure aids and cancer. Since 1982, with the help of biotech vaccines and drugs ,millions of people have been helped. But how has it changed our lives?

Agricultural biotechnology uses further techniques to make production much easier and produce best quality product over the last years including

In some African countries, rice is the primary source of food and therefore improving the quality of rice means bettering the nutritional intake of the poorer population especially children. Dr Momma and collegues at the University of Kyoto revealed that genetically modified rice contained 20% more protein than normal rice.

However studies have shown that genetically modified food expose a threat to our biodiversity since the food has more resistance over the natural wild varieties and be fatal to other organism in the ecosystem. We have skipped the impact of animal health when designing genetically modified food and animals can suffer from nutrient imbalance, insulin problem, and dangerous side effects such as allergies which can even lead to death of certain species of animal like

Scientists have developed with the aid of biotechnology vaccines to cure or reduce the spreading of devastating diseases and according the World Health Organisation estimates, there are about five million people who have been saved after the introduction of medical biotechnology. (B.N Pandy. 2008, P 249).

However till now, scientists have been using the viral vector to carry gene into our body and its consequences are still unknown to us. By manipulating gene, there is fear that it may lead to the new formation of an unknown virus, which we don’t know yet.

Our natural ecosystem is consistently changing due to climatic change, direct impact of population and pollution. To develop a bio based economy, we should use bio resources so as to contribute to sustainable industrial development. By modifying biological organism, enzymes from plants & animals and naturally microorganism are used to stimulate chemical reaction with high efficiency to develop diverse bio products that are harmless to the environment. An example is bio degradable plastic