Session 7

Brief Overview/Summary

The seventh TWC lesson was about Biobusiness Revolution, notably in the areas of environmental life sciences and industrial biotechnology in the past, present and the future.

Interesting Observations and Ideas

Prof Shahi started today’s lesson with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi which stated:

“There’s enough on this planet for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed.”

Gandhi was a huge advocate of equality among gender, race and religion. This  quote shows that there is a wide disparity between what we need to keep going and taking in excess. There is actually an uneven distribution of resources on Earth where the rich use more resources than they actually need, which deprives the poor of the same resources. According to this model, if everyone operates and uses resources like the rich, we will face very risky scarcity problems in the very near future. Hence, we have to find solutions to balance resources, allowing everyone to have chances to use them.

In relation to Jing Hui’s presentation, she mentioned that farmers produce food that can feed up to 3000 calories/person per day. However, there is still 1 billion people in the world who are suffering from hunger, and about 1/3 of the people in the world waste food. This is clear evidence that there is a clear uneven distribution of needs and resources in the world today. It was also mentioned that there is a food-dumping firm in the US that aims to artificially prop up the demand for food, stabilizing food prices and to prevent them from lowering. However, instead of letting these profit maximizing firms fulfill their selfish aims, these wasted food can be better utilized if they were given and donated to poor countries or people.

Prof Shahi then reiterated the definition of technology as the application of knowledge to solve problems. With this, we can say that the definition of biotechnology is to use our knowledge of living systems and organisms to develop or make useful products. He also introduced the different types of biotechnology divided into different colours.

Red – Biotechnology supplied to humans

Green – Biotechnology supplied to plants and animals

Blue – Marine applications

White – Industrial applications of biotechnology

However, innovations under red biotechnology are much less controversial than introducing innovative green biotechnologies because people are concerned about what they eat.

This is very related to Yiting’s presentation regarding meat created by our own derivatives, such that people find it difficult to overcome psychological barriers to consume such food. This is also very similar to the concept of NEWater in Singapore.

This brings us to the concept of food labeling, such that there are different views which people have with regards to whether people want to know what they consume or not. The US has disallowed labeling, as they want to encourage people to treat and consume GM food as any other food. They have chosen to do so by not letting people know the kind of food that they are about to consume.

The idea of genetically modified foods was actually birthed thousands of years ago, where people choose to genetically modify and selectively breed dogs according to their wishes. Today, there is a large and exponential increase in GM food in the market. However, some people and societies continue to disapprove the consumption of GM crops, which makes the need for food labeling a major issue today.

Prof Shahi then showed us a animated video that shows human beings as parasites. To maintain a healthy Earth, we need to have equilibrium. However, humans have been using too much natural resources, and are also responsible for poisoning the atmosphere. This video creates the analogy of humans as parasites, which was actually suitable and accurate to describe humans, who are blatantly sucking the natural resources of the earth dry. Soon, after people suck the resources of the earth dry, people will soon have nothing to survive upon and would have to look for resources in other plants in the solar system for new resources.

However, it can be argued that the video portrays a very extremist view of humans. In the past, people tend to be unaware and lack the knowledge for the huge impacts of using natural resources. However today, people are become more knowledgeable and aware of the impacts of the large use of natural resources and have made a turning point to shift towards sustainable technology. As Prof Shahi mentioned, we are now at the ‘threshold of change’ as we move towards this new form of technology. To know that we have succeeded is when the whole world has shifted to become sustainable as a whole.

Moving on, we compared the different living and working environments we have today – urban vs. rural. In an urban environment, people feel that it is a more suitable environment for jobs as compared to farms in a rural environment. With urbanization, people have changed in terms energy consumption, and they have become less physically active as compared to before. Also, they have become more independent on income unlike in rural societies where people make their own food. On the brightside, people have actually become more educated than before, and their taste and preferences has faced a major transformation. Urbanization has also made people very used to having services such as garbage, sewage systems. However, they will have to independently deal with overcrowding and epidemics, which are the main consequences of urbanization. With more and more urban societies, less and less people will be working in the fields. Ironically, we need more food production to meet the growing demand and population today. Therefore, the main challenge that people face is to come up with ideas and solutions to increase productivity in food production in this ever-changing world.

The next video showed was on the new industry biomaterials today. This refers to use innovation to look for ways to use biotech to manufacture products through the use of renewable resources. A very relevant example of large uses of energy is the enormous of use of plastics made from fossil fuels, such as oils and natural gases. With bio-based materials, new green plastics are made from sugars from corn. This helps to lessen the environmental impact of large use of plastics today. Bio plastics use up to 30-50% less petroleum in production, and lowers co2 emissions by 50-70%.

Food security refers to a condition where all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. This topic related to the need for adequate food production for a growing population today, which requires societies to change their economic policies and to undertake green revolution for higher yield.

This is so that although we are able to meet the growing demand for food production today, we are still able to preserve our environment for future generations. We need agricultural practices to be as sustainable as possible and make lighter environmental footprint in an economical way.

Key Takeaways

1)   Industrial agriculture is one of the leading ways to ensure mass production of agriculture

2)   More effort must be taken to reduce the urban-rural divide

3)   The advancement of bioagritechnology will help to ensure that we lighten environmental damages while ensuring mass production of agriculture

4)   The advancement of all forms of biotechnology (red, green, blue and white) will help ensure sustainability for future generations

Issues for Further Discussion

1)   Other than bioagritechnology, what are other methods to ensure mass production and sustainability of agriculture?

2)   What are the peoples’ views on GM crops?

3)   Will traditional agriculture eventually die down?

Personal Ratings

I would rate this class 7/10.