GM crops: The socio-economic impacts

سال انتشار: 1391
نوع سند: مقاله ژورنالی
زبان: انگلیسی
مشاهده: 466

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تاریخ نمایه سازی: 16 فروردین 1395

چکیده مقاله:

World population has already exceeded 6.5 billion, out of which about 850 million (13 percent) areundernourished. With the current growth rate, the world community faces even a greater challenge of hungerand food security as the estimated the population will catch 9 billion by the year 2050 with doubled needs forfood. At the same time, preservation of biodiversity, stopping deforestation and reduced environmentalfootprint caused by agricultural practice are the main concerns towards sustainable agriculture. Theprogressive adoption of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) including GM crops and trees can make adecisive contribution to improve harvest and alleviate hunger and poverty. In addition to the environmentalbenefits, the introduced GMOs can improve water use efficiency and reduce the need for fossil based fuelsand pesticide application and reduce thousands of tons of emissions of green house gases. In this respect,several social issues are still of concern. On one hand, many beneficial advantages of GMOs have encourageda wide spectrum of large or small farmers to cultivate transgenic plants which is translated to food securityand job opportunities. On the other hand, while ideological debates have hindered, or even ceased, technologyprovisions in developing and underdeveloped countries, GMO seed and food productions are monopolized bya quite small number of transnational companies. For instance, seeds that were previously available at low orno cost, mainly through public institutes, international entities or seed exchange among farmers, would beoffered at higher prices due to exclusive right of producers and additional cost of patent royalties. Cartagenaprotocol is going to regulate the relationship among countries aiming at preservation of world biodiversity.Although the developing countries outnumbered developed nations that cultivate transgenic plants in recentyears, current statistic shows that around 84 percent of GMO crops are cultivated by only four countries,USA, Brazil, Argentina and Canada. Scientist and scholars, particularly in Islamic states, as well as decisionmakers are the major responsible bodies that must take roles for the current and future situations. Despite thefact that most of scientists or scholars are not in navigation positions, however, they can discuss socioeconomic issues and raise public awareness in order to harmonize their efforts towards proper utilization ofbiotech products in their society and towards a reliable point for food security and safety.

کلیدواژه ها:

genetically modified crop and socio-economic

نویسندگان

M.A. Malboobi

National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, P.O. Box 14155-6343, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran