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Biotechnology & Sustainability

Our world’s growing population must grow its food and textile fibers on what is essentially a fixed amount of arable land with finite water sources. Clearly, we can only serve a growing population by improving and making our agricultural methods more efficient.

Enter biotechnology - more specifically, genetic engineering. Used successfully for more than 30 years, modern biotechnology is the science of manipulating the genetic makeup of living organisms for achieving improved, sustainable attributes. These include benefits such as higher agricultural yields that require less soil, water and other resources resulting in less environmental impact. When applied to agriculture, biotechnology has proven itself to be the key to meeting our future challenges.

And the challenges are indeed formidable. Consider that by2050:

• There will be 3 billion more people on the planet -- more than 9 billion people in total;
• Food production must double to meet population needs;
• Fiber production must triple to clothe the growing population;
• Natural resources will not replenish themselves in pace with population growth;
• If unchecked, environmental stressors will further jeopardize the well being of the entire planet.

In some ways biotechnology is only a speeded up way of controlling traits in plants and animals that farmers have done for centuries through crossbreeding – a form of genetic manipulation, but at a much slower rate. For the cotton industry, biotechnology has already brought us insect tolerant cotton plants that drive economic development and environmental safety in areas of the world once unfavorable to sustainable cotton production. Biotechnology has given us the ability to remove toxins from cottonseed making possible the widespread use of cottonseed for human food – a crucial development for a world seeking to feed 9 billion people.

Biotechnology has been researched and tested for more than a generation, and more advances will come. Yet, it’s a fact that some people and even entire governments have remained skeptical of biotechnology. Some governments don’t allow genetically modified products into their countries.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, it is only wealthy countries that can afford to take this stance as they currently have the resources to feed and clothe their populations using older, less sustainable crop varieties.

Thirty years of research and results have proven skepticism about biotechnology to be unfounded. The countries that embrace biotechnology, which includes developed as well as developing countries, have shown the resulting products to be wholesome and completely safe.

The regulatory standards for safety and effectiveness of biotech products in the U.S. are rigorous and comprehensive, designed to scrutinize and assess all aspects of the food, feed and environmental safety of crops developed via biotechnology.

Regulators, scientists and the industry choose to err on the side of caution. In the U.S. three agencies are involved in the regulation of biotechnology. They are:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) assesses the safety of all biotech plant products intended for consumption by humans and animals. Genetically modified varieties are regarded as containing food additives.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA), through its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), oversees field testing of biotech seeds and plants to make sure their release causes no harm to agriculture and the environment.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) evaluates biotech plants' environmental safety — such as their pesticide properties, possible effect on wildlife and how these plants break down in the environment. The agency also must approve any herbicide use with herbicide-tolerant crops.

The U.S. biotechnology regulatory process has nine steps:

1. Biosafety Committee approval according to the National Institute of Health Biosafety Guidelines
2. USDA greenhouse approval
3. USDA field trial authorization
4. USDA authorization transport for field trials
5. USDA permission to commercialize
6. EPA experimental use permit approval
7. EPA determination of food tolerance or tolerance exemption
8. EPA product registration
9. FDA review process

The fact is that if we are to meet the challenges of providing food and fiber for the near- and long-term future of earth, biotechnology will have to play a role. Biotechnology has already proven itself to be up to the task.

Biotechnology is the present and the future of cotton. The technology is already providing increased yields on less land with less water, soil and other resources. And scientific advances in biotechnology are coming at an ever-faster rate, portending a future of full cotton sustainability.

Resources:

For additional reading on this topic, refer to:

"Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2008The First Thirteen Years, 1996 to 2008" ISAAA Brief 39-2008: Executive Summary.

"Seeds of a Perfect Storm: Genetically Modified Crops and the Global Food Security Crisis" by Nina Fedoroff, Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State and to the Administrator of USAID.

“The Role of Biotechnology in Improving the Sustainability of Cotton” by Roy G. Cantrell, former Vice President, Agricultural Research Division, Cotton Incorporated (PDF | 191K).