Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Biotechnology can be defined as the science and technology aimed at understanding and using living organisms or parts thereof to improve the organism for specific human uses or to make or modify a product. In this setting, many human activities should be considered part of the realm of biotechnology, but this is too general. So we shall use the more specific term “genetic modification”: the science and technology aimed at introducing any alteration of genetic material (DNA or RNA) of an organism by means that could not occur naturally through mating or recombination. The resulting organisms are called transgenic organisms or genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In 1996 the first genetically modified crops appeared, thirteen years after the first description of this technology. This year in countries like the US, China and India more than 85 million hectares are covered with genetically modified crops, like soya, cotton and maize. The total market value is estimated to be $4.5 billion. The first GMO crops, developed by Monsanto, were resistant against the herbicide of this company. Nowadays there are also all kinds of insect- and virus-resistant crops in many parts of the world with the exception of Europe. Transgenic animals are used in medical research, and there are only a few examples of transgenic animals in agriculture (for example transgenic salmon), while there is a worldwide ... log in or subscribe to read full text