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Biotechnology, Food Production, and Solutions to World Hunger
For purposes of analysis, one can examine the affects of biotechnology as it relates to food production and world hunger. The face of world production of food has undergone a great amount of change since World War II. ... In the following essay, one can examine through many different facets the choices that have been made in relation to human food production.
To begin to understand why innovations have been necessary, it is first essential to comprehend the possible reasons behind world hunger. “At the end of World War II public officials and scientists from all over the world predicted that with advances in modern technology it would be possible by the end of the century to end poverty, famine, and endemic hunger in the world” (Robbins 2002: 163). However, today, a staggering one-fifth of the world continues to go hungry. Those most at risk to hunger are children, with estimates that 250,000 die each week from hunger-related illnesses (Robbins 2002). Surprisingly, most experts claim that world hunger is not due to the fact that there is not enough food to feed the growing population. In fact, the world is capable of producing, and does produce, more food than is needed to feed the world. However, when people cannot pay for this food and are not receiving aid, they are simply forced to go hungry. While famines sometimes cause hunger, other reasons are much more common. In fact, as Andrew Kimbrell points out in his 1998 article “Why Biotechnology and High-Tech Agriculture Cannot Feed the World” the reason that people do not get the food the need is due to food dependence. ... They then are forced to buy their food, since they are no longer growing it. ... This is one of the more dominant causes of world hunger.
Many argue that biotechnology - the genetic engineering of plants - and advances in farming technology offers a solution to end world hunger. As pointed out in Kimbrell’s article, advocates for biotechnology and large-scale farming claim that their methods pave the way for more efficient food production while decreasing the amount of pesticides and other chemicals.
Approximate Word count = 1736
Approximate Pages = 6.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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