You are here:
BIOTECHNOLOGY: THE PROMISE, POTENTIAL RISKS & HOW CAN WE FIND OUT
Citation:
Glaser*, J A. BIOTECHNOLOGY: THE PROMISE, POTENTIAL RISKS & HOW CAN WE FIND OUT. Presented at Emerging Pollutants Workshop, Chicago, IL, 08/14/2003.
Description:
The green science and technology movement prods existing and newly invented technologies to serve stronger roles in enhanced pollution reduction and control. Biotechnology is one of several emerging technologies that are capable of displacing current more polluting technology. Bioengineered crops, biobased production, phytoremediation, and microbial pathogen detection are a few examples of the potential contributions of biotechnology to sustainable environmental systems. Proper evaluation and inspection of this technology is required to establish its compatibility with the environment.
The last two decades have shown remarkable advances in the field of biotechnology. We have processes using biotechnology to produce materials from commodity chemicals to pharmaceuticals. The application to agriculture has been shown with the introduction of transgenic crops with pesticidal and herbicidal protection. New applications such as molecular farming, the use of plants as bioreactors, offers recombinant therapeutics, diagnostics, blood substitutes, and antibiotics among an increasing number of target products derived from plant-based biotechnology. The technology is viewed to be environmentally benign, relatively inexpensive to develop with wide spectrum of useful activity, and flexible. Policy makers have made sustainable development a world priority. Application of biotechnology to fields of renewable raw materials and energy, food production, and pollution prevention has the potential to reach the goal of sustainability.
Insect-resistant genetically engineered crops are regulated by federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency. These crops, engineered to contain a bacterial gene from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), have been declared by EPA to be "in the public good," due to their potential to create higher crop yield with lower applications of insecticide. In order to protect that public good, and to preserve the utility of the microbial Bt pesticide used by organic farmers, EPA has imposed conditions on the use of Bt crops that are designed to prevent or delay the development of insect resistance to the Bt toxin. Here we present preliminary evidence that satellite imagery can be used to distinguish Bt corn from conventional corn and detect areas of pest infestation. The use of satellite imagery may be the only cost-effective way to monitor the >20 million acres of Bt corn for the emergence of resistant pests.