Week 7: Session 7

This week, our discussions were based on an extension of last week’s theme – The BioBusiness Revolution. This time we talked about the Agricultural, Environmental, and Industrial aspects of BioBusiness.

Throughout the session, we reiterated the importance of sustainable development; whatever we do should aim at protecting and preserving the environment for the future generations.

I was particularly interested in the concept of food security. In many developing countries of the world, there are people who do not have access to sufficient food and are dying due to starvation and nutritional deficiencies.

Food Security, as defined by the FAO is the condition where all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Everyone has a right to adequate food and to be free from hunger, but we haven’t reached that stage yet.

In terms of alleviating this problem of inadequate availability of food, the Green Revolution was a huge success, especially in developing countries like India. It advocated the use of improved seeds, fertilizers and other technology, which helped to produce higher yields while reducing soil erosion and the use of pesticides.

Yuxuan did a presentation on food security in China. She talked about the methods that China used to overcome food security problems brought about by a loss of arable land, increase in demand for food, environmental pollution, and other problems. One of her discussion questions addressed the issue as to whether the technologies brought about by the Green Revolution bypassed the poorest of farmers. This is possibly true as the poorest farmers try to make a living out of extremely small plots of land, and do not have money to pay for technologies such as improved seeds, fertilizer, irrigation facilities, and so on. So it is likely that they were left behind.

As stated in Reading 7 (How to Feed the World in 2050) for this session, this problem can be solved through peace, good governance, infrastructure, and institutions to disseminate technologies. Somebody else needs to pay for the technology, if the farmers can’t (the private sector could provide funding). However, all this requires skilled people and a lot of time and effort.

Moreover, it is important that our agricultural practices are sustainable and help to protect our environment for future generations.

According to Norman Borlaug, the ‘Father of the Green Revolution’, the Green Revolution and Biotechnology are helping to meet the growing demands for food production while preserving our environment for future generations.

Agricultural practices should be sustainable (while still economic). They should aim at increasing productivity, meeting nutritional needs and reducing environmental impacts. Agricultural biotechnology should be used to help address food, fuel and water shortages. Biotechnology crops help people meet nutritional needs, which is important in developing countries. They also help farmers deal with droughts and water shortages, as such crops are hardier and use water more efficiently. The environment is also benefited in terms of reduced soil erosion, and other negative impacts.

Another area which should be explored more is the generation of fuel from plants.

The growing world population not only requires more food, but also more energy. Scientists have developed new sources of energy that will reduce our dependence on nonrenewable resources. Biofuels from high yield-renewable plants that can be converted to ethanol contribute to a sustainable energy future, while protecting the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Bioenergy crops can produce food, animal-feed, fuel and other products, all from the same plant.

BioBusiness is also concerned with producing various industrial products. For example, the use of enzymes to make industrial products (industrial enzymes) such as: laundry softeners, meat tenderizers, and so on. Such methods are resource and energy efficient, as well as financially efficient, in comparison to the use of traditional chemicals to make industrial products.

Taking into consideration all the requirements and challenges that are being faced by people today, there are many interesting new opportunities coming up in the field of BioBusiness.

I found this session very informative and was intrigued by the details that we went into. I’d rate the session a 9 out of 10.