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t_Articles
t_Articles
What is FOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY?
Food biotechnology employs the tools of modern genetics in the age-old process of improving food production. Biotechnology helps to produce an abundant supply of better-tasting and more nutritious foods.
For thousands of years, humans have been selecting, sowing and harvesting seeds that produce food products, for sustenance. They have also been baking bread, brewing beer, producing soy sauce and making vinegar and tempeh. Although they did not understand the genetic science involved, they were in fact using the principles of biotechnology to make and modify plants and food products.
In other words, our ancestors moved and changed genes to enhance the beneficial qualities of food - without really knowing it. Today modern biotechnology allows food producers to do the same thing but with greater understanding and precision.
EARLY BEGINNINGS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
At first, humans collected and ate only what they could hunt or find growing in fields. Soon they figured out how to grow certain plants, which then became crops. When the first farmers decided some 10,000 years ago to stay put and grow food rather than wander around looking for it, it marked the beginning of agriculture. Over time, farmers developed techniques to improve their crops, although using traditional methods posed serious limitations.
For instance, when two whole plants are crossed, each having some 100,000 genes or so, all the genes from both plants get jumbled together when, in fact, breeders want only one or a few specific genes. To slowly breed out the tens of thousands of unwanted genes, traditional methods of genetic modification can take up to 10 to 12 years.
Through modern methods, however, breeders can select and move a specific trait into the genetic code of another plant. The new gene simply allows the modified plant to make a single new protein which may give the plant a particular desirable feature, such as higher resistance to insects or frost, greater productivity or enhanced nutritional value. This is the basis of modern food biotechnology.
THE BENEFITS OF FOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY
Biotechnology
is selective and precise, helping to improve products vital to food production, such as enzymes, proteins and vitamins. Some of the many other benefits include:
.
New varieties of these crops will produce natural substances to ward off
destructive insects.Better-tasting tomatoes all year round.
Because the fruit softens more slowly, tomatoes bred through biotechnology can
stay on vines longer before shipping to market, thereby gaining added flavour
and colour. This is also possible with other fruits such as bananas, mangoes and
papayas.Environmentally friendlier crops.
Crops will be resistant to plant virus disease through a process that gives the
plant a genetic "vaccine". Farmers will therefore require fewer chemicals to
control the spread of crop disease, particularly for crops such as melons,
bananas, cucumbers and lettuce.Herbicide-tolerant crops.
Many crops require treatment each year with herbicides. Soon, genetically
modified crops such as cotton, corn and soybeans will enable farmers to use more
environmentally friendly herbicides. This will mean reduced overall chemical
use.Modified and healthier cooking oils.
The fat content of cooking oils derived from corn, soybeans, canola and other
plants will be modified.
MORE BENEFITS IN THE NEAR FUTURE
In the future, food biotechnology will help to produce foods that are even more nutritious than today. For instance:
- Fruits and vegetables with higher levels of nutrients such as vitamins C and E and beta-carotene, and food components that may help reduce risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and some cancers.
- Lower fat french fries and potato chips made from high-starch potatoes which will absorb less oil when fried.
- Rice with an improved protein profile to include higher levels of lysine, an essential amino acid.
- Elimination of allergy-causing proteins from foods.
- Better methods to identify and locate toxins, pathogens or contaminants in food.
BIOTECHNOLOGY IS ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY
Biotechnology will facilitate more accurate and efficient food protection methods. Farmers need to protect their crops from various threats, including frost, insects, weeds and plant diseases. Traditional methods to control these pests, including chemicals, have reached their practical limits. Biotechnology can increase crop resistance to many natural challenges. For example:
- More crops will be developed to word off destructive insects and plant diseases, reducing the need for traditional chemical use.
- Breeding more herbicide, insecticide and fungicide-tolerant crops will allow more targeted application of agricultural chemicals and the use of more environmentally favourable chemicals.
- Plants will be enhanced to withstand low temperatures and frost.
GREATER CROP YIELDS
The global population is expected to double by 2030 to approach 10 billion people. Biotechnology will be instrumental in averting starvation in the next century by enhancing food production in some of the following ways:
- Improved quality of seed grains
- Increased levels of proteins in certain crops
- Increased tolerance of crops to
- Drought and Flood
- Salt and Metals
- Heat and Cold
NEW CROPS AND NEW CROP LANDS
The increased ability of crops to withstand environmental factors will allow farming in some regions that are currently unsuitable for food production, thus providing greater productivity and self-reliance to developing nations.
REDUCED FERTILISER USE
Each year, farmers around the world spend billions of dollars on fertiliser, yet much of it simply evaporates or is washed
away. Some plants, such as corn, might be modified to draw nitrogen from the soil and air, thereby reducing the need for fertiliser.
FOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY “ ASSURING ITS SAFETY"
Foods developed through biotechnology will meet the same safety and regulatory requirements as all other foods in the marketplace.
Leading international regulatory bodies have issued special guidelines that cover new plant varieties developed through biotechnology. The guidelines generally state:
- Genetically modified food products should be regulated in the some way as foods produced by other methods.
- These products will be judged on their individual safety and nutrition.
- Any new ingredient added to food through biotechnology will be subject to pre-market approval in the same way a new food additive, such as a preservative or food colour, must be approved before it reaches the marketplace.
These safeguards have been put in place to ensure that foods produced through biotechnology are as safe as those produced through conventional means.
SAME STANDARDS FOR PRODUCT LABELLING
The same labelling laws that apply to all other foods and food ingredients apply to products of food biotechnology. Requirements for all food labels mandate proper identification of products and notice of health or safety concerns.
In 1996, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) of the United Nations held a joint expert consultation on biotechnology and food safety in which the concept of "substantial
equivalance" was introduced. This concept has been used by some national governments to develop labelling regulations. For example, the US Food and Drug Administration only requires labelling when a product contains new or modified genetic material and is different from (that is, not substantially equivalent to) its traditional counterpart. The difference may be due to enhanced nutritional value, altered composition, or some other aspect of the food. Labelling would be required in some instances - but not simply because the products were made using biotechnology. For example, fruits or vegetables containing an enhanced amount of beneficial vitamins would be required to indicate this fact in the United States.
TASTY TOMATOES
Would you rather buy tomatoes that were picked while still hard and green, and then treated with ethylene gas to turn them red? Or would you prefer tomatoes left on the vine until they turn naturally red, then picked and shipped directly to market with more home-grown flavour?
New methods in biotechnology are making choices such as this possible. The same methods are being applied to make better-tasting melons, peaches, bananas and papayas. Even fresh-cut flowers can last longer.
SWEET POTATOES FOR A HUNGRY WORLD
For millions of farmers in Africa and China, sweet potatoes provide food and income all year round. But African farmers harvest only one third as many sweet potatoes per acre as Chinese farmers because nearly 60 per cent is lost to one plant virus - the feathery mottle virus, or FMV.
But with biotechnology, African sweet potatoes will soon resist FMV on their own, with less need for chemical protection. Many Africans rely on this subsistence crop for survival. As world population approaches 10 billion in 2030, advances such as this become crucial.
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