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ENVIRONMENTAL RISK MANAGEMENT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
Citation:
Glaser*, J A. AND S K. Sikdar*. ENVIRONMENTAL RISK MANAGEMENT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY. Presented at 5th International Symposium on Environmental Biotechnology, Kyoto, JAPAN, July 09 - 13, 2000.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
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 shown 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 hve the potential to reach to goal of sustainability. Sustainable technology is driven by economic competitiveness, government policies, and public pressure. The claim of inherent cleanliness for biotechnology is too simplistic. Each application of biotechnology must be evaluated for suitable characteristics of sustainability. The application of risk management tools such as Life Cycle Assessment to new technology is critical to the continued effort to improve environmental quality. new risk management aproaches such as quantitative resistance management of transgenic crops is beginning to be researched. The current state of biotechnology represents only a very collimated vision of its possible utility to the world. The demand for risk management methodology required to evaluate the new technological inventions for their ability to improve and sustain the environment increases with the number and complexity of new technology introductions.