The biotech century food biotechnology

Food biotechnology today

Modern biotechnology and genetic engineering techniques, such as rDNA, allow us to do things much faster. rDNA stands for Recombinant DNA.
Genetic engineering refers to the direct manipulation of an organism’s DNA, i.e., its genes.
With rDNA, we can move a gene from one organism to another, but without the undesirable traits.
With modern scientific techniques, we can obtain crop and animal improvements in a much more predictable, controlled, and precise manner.

Benefits of food biotechnology

Food biotechnology offers many benefits for farmers, food companies, consumers, and the environment. Below are some of these benefits.

The environment

Researchers have made some foods, such as potatoes and papayas, more disease resistant.
If a crop is more resistant to disease, that means it needs less chemical spray to protect it. Less spray subsequently means less air, land, and water pollution. Water pollution is a serious global problem.
This is good for animals, plants, etc., i.e., the environment.

Greater yields

Thanks to biotechnology, plants can ward off insects and have a better tolerance to herbicides. Put simply; science can help plants survive better so that we subsequently get better crop yields.
In this article, the word ‘yield’ refers to agricultural output, i.e., tons of a crop per acre.

Fresher food

Thanks to food biotechnology, many vegetables and fruits today take longer to ripen. This means that distributors and retailers have more time to get their produce onto shelves when they are ‘just right.’

More food with less land

By the middle of this century, there will be about nine billion people on Earth. Thanks to biotechnology, we will be able to produce more food using the land we are already using.
Regarding getting more food from our land, the authors of a University of Arizona article – ‘Biotechnology and Food‘ – write:
“This way, countries do not have to devote more land to farming. In turn, developing countries can benefit most, since they will have the largest population growth.”

Food safety

Scientists are getting better at accurately detecting undesirable bacteria and viruses in our food. Thanks to their technology, there will be a lower risk of food-borne illnesses. A foodborne illness is an illness we get because of something we ate.
We call foods that scientists have altered genetically