Agricultural Biotechnology

Agricultural Biotechnology Agricultural Biotechnology is the application of concepts and methods of biotechnology to solve real-world problems related to agriculture,such as crop production and pests.Some scientists predict that the twenty-first century will be the century of biotechnology.Agricultural Biotechnology can be divided into four parts.First,Genetic Engineering.One of the best-known and controversial applications of genetic engineering is the creation and use of genetically modified crops or genetically modified organisms,such as genetically modified fish,which are used to produce genetically modified food and materials.There are four main goals in genetically modified crops.The first goal is to provide protection from environmental threats,such as cold,or pathogens,such as insects or viruses.The second goal is to modify the qualities of products,for instance,increasing the nutritional or providing more industrially useful qualities or quantities of the produce.The Amflora potato,for example,produces a more industrially useful blend of starches.Cows have been engineered to produce more protein in their milk to facilitate cheese production.The third goal is to produce materials that it does not normally make.One example is “pharming”,which uses crops as bioreactors to produce vaccines,drug intermediates,or drug themselves.The fourth goal is to directly improve yield by accelerating growth,or making the organism more hardy.Someagriculturally important animals have been genetically modified with growth hormones to increase their size.Second,Enzyme engineering.Enzyme engineering is applied in deep processing of agricultural products.For example,it can be used to produce beer and ing cellulose compound enzyme as additive can improve the feed nutrients.It can increase the content of protein,cut down the content of crude fiber and improve the color and smell of feed.It can promote digestion and absorption of nutrients,reduce livestock and poultry diarrhea,so as to promote animal growth and improve the feed utilization rate.Third,Cell e a single cell of a plant and we can produce pollen haploid plants,including rice,wheat and soybeans.It can enhance crop production and improve crop ing plant cell engineering and genetic engineering to improve crops qualities,increase crop yield,improve food features as well as to reduce pesticide use is problem needed to be solved in the twenty-first century,which is a hot topic now.Fourth,Fermentation engineering.Through fermentation engineering,we can make microbial fertilizer,microbial pesticide,microbial feed.These products can be produced in large amount and save money.They can solve the problem of pests and food without damaging environment and people‟s health.Although Agricultural Biotechnology has so many benefits,it has some disadvantages.Just as the saying goes,one coin has two sides.Poisonous crops:Genetically modified crops change the natural qualities of crops and they may cause great damage to people‟s health.For example,scientists transplant characteristics of Brazil nuts to soybeans,only to make some people who are allergic to walnuts produce allergic reactions after eating soybeans.Also genetically modified crops have many side effects.They may do harm to our livers,kidneys and hearts.Biomutation:The monsanto company developed genetically modified corn,through transgenic technology,the corn is resist to herbicide …Roundup‟produced by the monsanto company.So many farmers can use “Roundup” safely.Not only does it save money,but also it does not affect the growth of crops.However,the crops are polluted by herbicide and become dangerous.Scientists gave mice genetic modified crops as food for two years.50% of the mice got cancer,including liver cancer and kidney cancer.Ecological invasion:The genetically modified crops become the dominant species in the environment due to the implant of particular genes and the large area of cultivation.If these genetically modified crops widespread,they will evolve into super weeds,bringing survival pressure to other species,causing damage of environment.For example,Mexico isthe country of origin of the corn and it has the best corn seed in the world.However,the genetically modified crops in America have polluted many native corn varieties and had great effect on the breeding of crops.The population in the world is still growing.That means we need more food to live on in the near future.However,the increasing rate of crops can‟t keep pace with that of population.And the gap between them is becoming larger and larger.Agricultural Biotechnology can increase crop‟s productivity,and as such,the conflicts between population and food supply will be remitted effectively,not to mention some African countries suffering from starving.Deng Xiaoping attaches much importance to agricultural development and he thinks that the future of China‟s agriculture depends on biotechnology.Yang Zhenning thinks that the influence biotechnology brings will go beyond the influence computer has brought and the sixth revolution of technology will mainly be agricultural biotechnology.The current problems have provided a direction for scientists to study and make it more advanced.In a word,agricultural biotechnology really brings us lots of benefits,no matter in life or production.All these are based on continuous innovation.That requires us to explore more into the unknown world.Brief introduction of the text: With rapid population growth,humans face the challenge of producing enough food to meet the demands of the world. However, we face an even greater challenge of producing it in away that conserves the biodiversity and other natural resources on which societies depend. That‟s why biotechnology has emerged as a potential tool for overcoming the current limitations on food production.For example, biotechnology has been applied to increase crop productivity, develop more-nutritious foods,protect and preserve biodiversity, enhance natural resource conservation,etc.Biotechnology is defined as the application of scientific and engineering principles to the processing or production of materials by biological agents to provide goods and services.What a common technique in agricultural biotechnology is genetic engineering, allowing novel characteristics to be introduced into a plant and making transgenic crops.There‟s no denying that preserving biodiversity is important for maintaining the functioning of natural ecosystems, which provide part of the base of natural resources. In addition, the diversity in natural ecosystems is also a source of genetic variability that is useful in crop development.As a result, protecting and preserving biodiversity should be placed on the top of the agenda. Last but not least, not only does biotechnology play a major role in addressing the world energy and resource needs in the future ,but also biotechnology-based alternatives can provide solutions to problems of environmental contamination.。