The career opportunities in biotechnology are rapidly expanding due to growing interest in the many applications the field offers. One of the areas where biotechnology may have some positive effects is in feeding the world.
A huge problem in the world today is people being unable to grow or find enough food to sustain a healthy quality of life. Many people in developing nations face the risk of both malnutrition and starvation. The resources of biotechnology are being applied to help lessen the world's food shortage. Biotechnology is improving old methods to produce faster, better results.
To understand some of the new advanced methods of biotechnology, it is necessary to understand the methods that have been in use for long periods of time. One of the areas where biotechnology has been present for the longest amount of time is in agriculture.
Agriculture is the practice of planting, growing, and harvesting plant and animal crops for useful purposes. Some of the useful purposes are developing healthier food, crops, and animals.
In agriculture, the practice of crop rotation to maximize soil fertility has been used for thousands of years, and is still being used today. Crops are rotated in a yearly planned sequence.
Some of the benefits of crop rotation are that it reduces the soil erosion, guards the quality of water by avoiding excess amounts of chemicals or nutrients, and it reduces the natural cycles of insects, diseases, and weeds that are controlled by pesticides. With crop rotation, less fertilizer and pesticides are used, which in turn saves the environment because of less pollution.
For several thousand years, the products in bread and cheese have been created from biotechnology. A living organism, yeast, is used to make bread rise. The yeast eats the sugar in the bread and releases a gas, carbon dioxide. The gas that is released causes the bread to rise.
Cheese is made by using a living organism, lactic bacteria, which keeps milk from spoiling while it ages. Keep in mind how bread and cheese are made the next time you eat a sandwich.
Some believe that biotechnology has created foods that are safer and better. Foods can be improved in flavor and nutrient content, and made safer by reducing allergens and pollutants that naturally occur.
Foods that are altered by biotechnology are referred to as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). A genetically modified organism is an organism that has been produced using genetic engineering. This means that it may contain DNA from a different organism.
For example, corn has been genetically modified to reduce the effects of a caterpillar that kills corn plants. A gene from a bacterium has been added that fights off the caterpillar.
Selective breeding has been used in agriculture for thousands of years to produce the desired characteristics. To explain selective breeding the example of corn will be used. Thousands of years ago, corn was very different in color and size. The kernels were not much bigger than sunflower seeds and brown in color.
What began to happen was the farmer would choose the kernels that were better, larger kernels for example, and select those to keep and plant the next season. With selective breeding, the process takes several generations. That is why today we know corn as having big, juicy yellow kernels.
Now, with biotechnology and genetic modification the process of refining crops to produce the desired results is vastly shortened.
Rather than waiting several generations of selecting the crops with the desired characteristics and planting those the next season, genetic modification offers the convenience of producing the desired characteristics in one generation. The process of genetic modification is much more precise than selective breeding.
A huge problem in the world today is people being unable to grow or find enough food to sustain a healthy quality of life. Many people in developing nations face the risk of both malnutrition and starvation. The resources of biotechnology are being applied to help lessen the world's food shortage. Biotechnology is improving old methods to produce faster, better results.
To understand some of the new advanced methods of biotechnology, it is necessary to understand the methods that have been in use for long periods of time. One of the areas where biotechnology has been present for the longest amount of time is in agriculture.
Agriculture is the practice of planting, growing, and harvesting plant and animal crops for useful purposes. Some of the useful purposes are developing healthier food, crops, and animals.
In agriculture, the practice of crop rotation to maximize soil fertility has been used for thousands of years, and is still being used today. Crops are rotated in a yearly planned sequence.
Some of the benefits of crop rotation are that it reduces the soil erosion, guards the quality of water by avoiding excess amounts of chemicals or nutrients, and it reduces the natural cycles of insects, diseases, and weeds that are controlled by pesticides. With crop rotation, less fertilizer and pesticides are used, which in turn saves the environment because of less pollution.
For several thousand years, the products in bread and cheese have been created from biotechnology. A living organism, yeast, is used to make bread rise. The yeast eats the sugar in the bread and releases a gas, carbon dioxide. The gas that is released causes the bread to rise.
Cheese is made by using a living organism, lactic bacteria, which keeps milk from spoiling while it ages. Keep in mind how bread and cheese are made the next time you eat a sandwich.
Some believe that biotechnology has created foods that are safer and better. Foods can be improved in flavor and nutrient content, and made safer by reducing allergens and pollutants that naturally occur.
Foods that are altered by biotechnology are referred to as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). A genetically modified organism is an organism that has been produced using genetic engineering. This means that it may contain DNA from a different organism.
For example, corn has been genetically modified to reduce the effects of a caterpillar that kills corn plants. A gene from a bacterium has been added that fights off the caterpillar.
Selective breeding has been used in agriculture for thousands of years to produce the desired characteristics. To explain selective breeding the example of corn will be used. Thousands of years ago, corn was very different in color and size. The kernels were not much bigger than sunflower seeds and brown in color.
What began to happen was the farmer would choose the kernels that were better, larger kernels for example, and select those to keep and plant the next season. With selective breeding, the process takes several generations. That is why today we know corn as having big, juicy yellow kernels.
Now, with biotechnology and genetic modification the process of refining crops to produce the desired results is vastly shortened.
Rather than waiting several generations of selecting the crops with the desired characteristics and planting those the next season, genetic modification offers the convenience of producing the desired characteristics in one generation. The process of genetic modification is much more precise than selective breeding.
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