Building Trust in Biotechnology Development: Sharing Experience, Sharing Concerns.

Abstract

Biotechnology development is one of the fastest and most precise means of genetic manipulations at the cellular and molecular levels for enhanced desirable end products. Its applications in Agriculture, Medicine, Pharmaceutical, Environmental and Marine sciences make it very useful in solving many agricultural production constraints and developing vaccines for protection against some communicable and terminal diseases, as well as, in the cleaning of the marine environment for the survival of the animals, fishes and other organisms in the oceans. This paper surveyed the web for available information on how GMO crops can tame hunger that is currently ravaging many countries of the world due to the effects of climate change and its accompanying agricultural production constraints. The paper studied the ten most food sufficient nations of the world, the ten most food shortages in the globe, the ten most hunger-stricken nations of the world, the ten top countries where people are dying because of severe hunger, and how population and growth rate of some sample countries studied affect food availability for effective planning. The paper also looked into the adoption of biotechnology in food production, its possible effects on food-sufficient nations, and its rejection in some hunger-stricken nations of the world. The results showed that 6 of the 10 most food-sufficient nations adopted the use of GM food, which prompted 6 of the food-shortage nations to quickly adopt GM crops. It was also observed that 4 of the countries with sufficient food, are of low population and low growth rate, therefore, could afford to feed their citizens without GM food, while 4 hunger-stricken nations that do not adopt GM crops have high death rates due to hunger and thereby pushed themselves to serious avoidable wars. The paper also comparatively assessed ten countries with the most reported cancer cases and ten top countries with the lowest cancer cases to ascertain or dismiss the general speculations that cancer is positively associated with the consumption of GMO foods. The paper, based on present findings, concluded that the adoption of biotechnology in food production is inevitable for many countries of the world, especially Africa, India, and South America, to curb famine and starvation and to be able to cope with the population growth rate. Consumption of GMO food had no direct link with cancer cases and should be ruled out until an empirical study confirms such an assumption, much so than hunger kills faster than GM foods, for which no evidence of adverse effects has been proven.