"Biotechnology is projected to transform the world around us by combatting world hunger. Everyone will be well-fed," biotechnologists and farmers say. Read below for a full report, complete with video and audio clips from the field's leading experts.
Plant biotechnology, also called plant breeding, changes the genetic make-up of plant crops to benefit mankind, the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) said.
Biotechnologists, through the careful combination of biology and technology produce products for farmers that make the growing process easier and more plentiful by extracting favorable traits to implant in another.
For example, Monsanto is an agriculture company that produces seeds genetically modified to fend off pests and weeds. Consequently famers use fewer pesticides and produce larger yields. Monsanto is one of many seed companies in the United States that has learned to produce seeds with new benefits.
As world population increases, so does demand, and farmers across the globe work grueling hours to meet those needs, Adam Hatley, a farmer in Scottsdale, Arizona said. Hatley uses plant biotechnology.
This biotransformation in biotechnology has the power to provide sustenance to billions of the world's inhabitants as a tool that enables growers to feed more people, even though the amount of land available to farmers remains the same, CTIC said.
Charles Arntzen of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University says that seeds are being produced to fare droughts in Africa, as well as other climates that are less conducive to agriculture.
*For more information about draughts in Africa, see this article by The Guardian.
This is a great thing, Lane Vanderslice of World Hunger said in a phone interview. Agriculture in developing countries is growing, and therefore combatting world hunger.
Despite, the facts are startling, Vanderslice said. With more than 870 million hungry people in the world, there is work to do. He's hopeful for the future.
Evan McCoy is a part of that future. He is a junior studying Biology at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He works for a grower that produces genetically modified corn used in animal feed throughout the Midwest. McCoy said in an interview that biotechnology has the power to revolutionize agriculture in the United States, and he sees a promising future for himself.
Arizona State University and the Biodesign Institute project a bright outlook for students in the biotechnology field. They reported on their websites recent graduates gross up to $90,000 a year and long-time professionals make double, if not more.
Biotechnology is widely studied at the high school and university level in the United States.
