About Me

My photo
Hi my name's Paul, I'm studying A levels in a school in Kent and am aspiring to go to The University of Nottingham to study Plant Bioscience. Enjoy my blogs, they will mainly be about Biology. Contact me at rubiscoactivase@gmail.com

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Is Genetic Modification All About the Money?

The effects of the modification of crops on peoples standard of living is seen now as generally beneficial. An example would be increased nutrition from food stuffs which could potentially lead to better quality of life for millions of people. However many people argue that genetic modification could kill traditional farming techniques and important heritage and culture could be lost.

With increased yields and hence increased profits, many people believe the world of agriculture will become monopolized by MNCs who have access to the latest genetically superior crops. It could potentially turn into the same scenario as the pharmaceutical industry, where companies have patents on particular DNA sequences. These patents could restrict the sale of these new crops in LEDCs, hence limiting their beneficial effect.

On the flip side, it is MNCs that fuel research into areas of science such as genetic modification and if it wasn't for the possible financial gain, they would cease funding such endeavours.

It is my belief that for the advance of scientific areas such as genetic modification there needs to be the incentive of financial gain, and although this may taint the possible benefits of the research, I believe that helping some people is better than helping none at all. Anyway, this is assuming the importation of genetically modified produce is prohibited in certain LEDCs due to patents complications, for all we know MNCs could grow a heart.



          

2 comments:

  1. I never bothered to think of it in the aspect of patents on particular DNA sequences. It would make sense for them to be adequately payed for all their hard work but I'm not sure if I agree with it being able to be patented and essentially monopolized. I'd have to learn more about it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is a normal thing.

    ReplyDelete