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What Teens Say...
Name: Aravinth Karunanandaa
Essay Theme: Dynamic DNA |
State: Missouri
School: Northeast Middle School |
Boosting Agricultural Bounty
with Genetics |
 In 1973, discovery
of the recombinant DNA technology by Stanley Cohen and Herbert
Boyer led to the birth of genetic engineering and biotechnology.
Biotechnology is defined as "application of living organisms
to develop new products and processes." Use of biotechnology
has been dated back to 6000 BC, when yeast was used by Sumerians
and Babylonians to make beer. Plant biotechnology is a general
term used for the tweaking of a plant genome by inserting foreign
gene(s) or modifying the existing gene to obtain desirable trait(s)
to boost agriculture. Plants are considered as factories of
nature. They have the chemistry and metabolic pathways to produce
basic nutritional needs for animals and humans.
Scientists
predict that in the next 40 years there will be double the population
and triple the demand for food. Since the major component of
human diets is derived from plants either directly or indirectly,
the ever-growing demand for food can be met with the use of
plant biotechnology to boost agriculture without the fear of
degrading the environment. The marriage of plant biotechnology
and plant breeding has enabled scientists to create plants with
the following traits: higher yield, herbicide tolerance, pest
resistance, enhanced nutritional value, elimination of allergens
in food, and drought and stress tolerance.
Monsanto's
Roundup Ready (RR) soybean (herbicide resistant) and YieldGard
(insect resistant) corn are examples of two major agricultural
crops that are genetically modified (GM), introduced into the
U.S. market in 1995. In addition, Bollgard cotton (insect resistant),
and RR canola have been successfully grown in the Western Hemisphere.
In 1999, of the total of 72 million acres in the United States
planted with soybeans, half were planted with RR soybean. Introduction
of RR soybean has benefits of increased yield, lower operating
cost, reduced groundwater pollution, and soil conservation.
During the past 50 years, increasing
crop yield has been the primary objective of modem agriculture.
Nutritional content and composition of crops have been largely
overlooked in breeding programs. Basic nutritional needs of
most of the world's population are largely unmet. Hence, modifying
the nutritional composition of plant foods is an urgent worldwide
health concern. According to the World Health Organization,
diet deficient in vitamin A affects 250 million children globally.
Vitamin A deficiency has been implicated in poor vision, protein
malnutrition, and immune function-related diseases. Ingo Potrykus,
a Swedish scientist, has created golden rice, rich in vitamin
precursor beta-carotene, through genetic engineering. This is
the first kind of GM rice that harnesses the genetic potential
of an agricultural crop to offer improved nutrition for the
billions of people in developing nations who depend on rice
as a staple food. Currently, scientists are working to increase
the sterol content of plants that have potential to reduce human
serum cholesterol and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Approximately
115 million people in the United States face potential death
from cholesterol-related CVD.
The
above examples portray the power of biotechnology and plant
breeding to boost agricultural bounty as an environmentally
sustained solution.
References:
| Abelson, P. H. and P. J. Hines. 1999. Plant
biotechnology: Food and feed, |
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the plant revolution. Science 285:367-368. |
| Access excellence @ The National Health
Museum <www.accessexcellence.org> |
| Biotechnology Australia <www.biotechnology.gov.au/biotechnologyOnline> |
| DellaPenna, D. 1999. Nutritional genomics:
Manipulating plant micronutrients |
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to improve human health. Science 285:375-379. |
| Gura, T. 1999. Biotechnology: New genes
boost rice nutrients. Science |
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285:993-994. |
| John Innes Centre, United Kingdom. <www.jic.bbsrc.ac.uk> |
| Kaufman, M. 2002. "Tweaking genes to
help plants survive elements." |
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Washington Post, October 21. |
| Kishore, G. M. and C. Shewmaker. 1999. Biotechnology:
Enhancing human |
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nutrition in developing and developed worlds. Proc.
Natl. Acad. Sci. 96:5968-5972. |
| Pollack, A. 2002. "Gene jugglers take
to fields for food allergy vanishing act." |
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The New York Times, October 15. |
| Sustainability-Seeds for Thought, Magazine
on Learning is Discovery. |
|
Monsanto, St. Louis, Missouri. |
This essay was part of a 2003 essay contest sponsored by
Council for Agricultural Science & Technology.
Click here to see how essays were selected.
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