Biotech offers benefits and challenges<\/p>\n
Biotechnology and the Environment
\n By Vandana Shiva, Third World Network, Pulau Pinang,
\n Malaysia, 37 pages.<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Through biotechnology, known as biotech,
\nanything seemingly impossible becomes possible.<\/p>\n
Theoretically, genetic engineering allows any gene to be moved
\nfrom any organism to any other. The recombinant DNA
\n(deoxyribonucleicacid) technology has the potential to transform
\nthe genes into a global resource that can be used to shape new
\nlife forms.<\/p>\n
But, technological innovations and scientific change do not
\nmerely bring benefits. They also carry social, ecological and
\neconomic costs, writes Vandana Shiva in Biotechnology and the
\nEnvironment, a booklet which presents the impacts of biotech from
\na critical standpoint.<\/p>\n
The contents of Biotechnology and the Environment include
\ntopics such as biotechnology and biohazards, which reveal some
\ncurrent research on genetically engineered life forms and their
\nnegative impacts on social, ecological and economic lives,
\nparticularly in Third World countries; as well as biotechnology,
\npatents and private property rights regarding life forms, which
\nshow how potentially harmful the patenting of life forms can be
\nfor Third World nations.<\/p>\n
The biotechnology referred to in this book consists of two
\nmajor groups. The first group -- genetic engineering -- refers to
\nthe new technique deriving from advances in molecular biology,
\nbiochemistry and genetics. The second is based on new cellular
\nprocedures employing the older technology using tissue culture.<\/p>\n
Biotech gives humankind the ability to alter the very fabric
\nof life. Biotechnologists are using this knowledge to play God.
\nAnxiety is increasing with the growing awareness that the
\nartificial recombinant DNA molecules could prove biologically
\nhazardous.<\/p>\n
The adverse ecological and epidemiological consequences will
\ncome true if self-propagating genetically engineered organisms
\nare accidentally or deliberately released into the biosphere. In
\nfact, the scientists closest to genetic engineering were the ones
\nwho first expressed concerns regarding the emergence of the new
\ntechnology.<\/p>\n
In this context, this book includes a statement by scientists
\nregarding the potential biohazards of recombinant DNA molecules,
\nled by Paul Berg, a molecular biologist from Berkeley.<\/p>\n
Altering crops<\/p>\n
At present, the development of these new technologies is
\nalmost entirely controlled by transnational enterprises, although
\nuniversities and small firms formulate the techniques.<\/p>\n
Twenty-seven corporations are working on all major food crops
\nto develop herbicide tolerance.<\/p>\n
For the seed-chemical multinationals, this might make
\ncommercial sense, since it is cheaper to adopt the plant to the
\nchemical than to adopt the chemical to the plant. The cost of
\ndeveloping a new crop variety rarely reaches US$2 million,
\nwhereas the cost of a new herbicide exceeds $40 million.<\/p>\n
Herbicide and pesticide resistance will also increase the
\nintegration of seeds\/chemicals and the control of TNC in
\nagriculture. Soybeans have been made resistant to Atrazine
\nherbicides (from Ciba-Geigy), and this has increased annual sales
\nof the herbicide by $120 million.<\/p>\n
However, strategies for employing more toxic chemicals in
\npesticide and herbicide resistant crop varieties for Third World
\nfarmers has had severe consequences.<\/p>\n
Thousands of people die annually as a result of pesticide
\npoisoning. In 1987, more than 60 farmers in India's prime cotton
\ngrowing area of Prakasham district in Andhra Pradesh committed
\nsuicide by consuming pesticide because of debts incurred for
\npesticide purchases.<\/p>\n
The introduction of hybrid cotton in the area created pest
\nproblems. Pesticide resistance resulted in epidemics of the white
\nfly boll worm, for which the peasants used more toxic and
\nexpensive pesticides, incurring heavy debts.<\/p>\n
This is just one example illustrating the devastating impact
\nthat new biotech products have on the economies of Third World
\nfarmers.<\/p>\n
Impact<\/p>\n
Shiva examines the applications of biotech in the Third World
\nwhich, according to her, are worthless and detrimental.<\/p>\n
The privatization of biotechnology in terms of patents in
\nagriculture and food production, the corporate effort to change a
\ncommon heritage into a commodity and to treat profits generated
\nthrough this transformation as a property right, will lead to
\nerosion, not just at the ethical and cultural levels, but also at
\nthe economic level for Third World farmers, writes Shiva, who has
\ndeep concern for Third World problems.<\/p>\n
At any rate, Shiva blames, not only blame the North for
\nexporting their sophisticated and environmentally unfriendly
\ntechnology, but also criticizes the South for their governments'
\nefforts to access the new biotechnologies.<\/p>\n
In their haste to acquire the new biotechnologies, the
\nSouthern governments could unwittingly offer themselves, their
\npeople and the environment as prime guinea pigs for the new
\ntechnology.<\/p>\n
Therefore, she urges the Third World to rapidly evolve a
\nframework to assess biotech on the basis of ecological, social
\nand economic impacts.<\/p>\n
This 37-page book gives insights into the consequences of
\nbiotech in Third World nations. But, unfortunately, the book
\nlacks a glossary for current biological terms which makes it
\ndifficult for readers not familiar with those terms to analyze
\nthe text.<\/p>\n
Wahyuni Rizkiana Kamah, graduate student of the Department of
\nBiology, University of Indonesia.<\/p>",
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