30th September 2013: The BioBusiness Revolution 2: Agriculture and the Environment: Past, Present, Future

Hello!
Brief Overview/Summary:

• Currently we are using non-renewable resources to create products, however, if we are able to grow bio-plastic, harness the sun's energy, and grow the things that we need, then we are on the road to sustainability.

• Biotechnology: The exploitation of biological processes for industrial and other purposes.

• Technology: The application of our knowledge; the know-how.

• Innovation: The process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which the customers will pay.

Interesting Observations and Ideas:
Different colors of Biotechnology:

1.  Red Biotech: Applied to medicine ( producing vaccines and antibiotics, developing new drugs, molecular diagnostics techniques, regenerative therapies and the development of genetic engineering to cure diseases through genetic manipulation. )

1. White Biotech: Applied to industrial processes ( design low resource-consuming processes and products, making them more energy efficient and less polluting than traditional ones. )

1. Grey Biotech: Applied to environment ( biodiversity maintenance and contaminants removal

1. Green Biotech: Applied to agriculture ( creating new plant varieties of agriculture interest, producing bio fertilizers and biopesticides, using in vitro cultivation and cloning plants )

1. Blue Biotech: Applied to sea resources

Crossover from rural to urban community:

• In year 2010, both Asia and Africa has crossed over 50% of its people living in urban conditions. While there are benefits to living in urban environments, there are certain repercussions that urban environments bring about. For instance, there would be a higher fatality rate if an epidemic were to happen in urban environment compared to rural environment. Moreover, with more people migrating to urban environment, we have less farmers to feed a burgeoning urban population. Rural environment allows for each individual to grow their own food and become less dependent on others.

Environmental Biomediation:

• Love Canal was labelled as one of the worst environmental tragedies ever in history. When Eckhardt C. Beck (EPA Administrator for Region 2, 1977 – 1979) visited Love Canal in the late 1970s, he discerned the presence of toxic substances in the community "I visited the canal area at that time. Corroding waste-disposal drums could be seen breaking up through the grounds of backyards. Trees and gardens were turning black and dying. One entire swimming pool had been popped up from its foundation, afloat now on a small sea of chemicals. Puddles of noxious substances were pointed out to me by the residents. Some of these puddles were in their yards, some were in their basements, others yet were on the school grounds. Everywhere the air had a faint, choking smell. Children returned from play with burns on their hands and faces." Love Canal has a disturbing rate of miscarriages and childbirth defects.
  
  What I can learn from this example would be that the our present actions will affect the future and we should take into consideration sustainability; satisfying our current generation without compromising meeting our future generation's needs. The vast amount of money set aside for biomediation of Love Canal could be have been used for other purposes.

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• What I can learn from this example would be that the our present actions will affect the future and we should take into consideration sustainability; satisfying our current generation without compromising meeting our future generation's needs. The vast amount of money set aside for biomediation of Love Canal could be have been used for other purposes.

Genetically Modified Food

• With regards to agriculture, we have been performing genetic modifications to our crops as early as the Green Revolution, only back then it was known as selective breeding. Green Revolution refers to a series of research, development, and technology transfer initiatives, occurring between the 1940s and the late 1960s, that increased agriculture production worldwide, particularly in the developing world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s.
  
  We are able to breed crops that are drought-resistant, require less water, higher yield. Able to feed more people using less land, and by using less pesticides = less environmental footprint.

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• We are able to breed crops that are drought-resistant, require less water, higher yield. Able to feed more people using less land, and by using less pesticides = less environmental footprint.

Key Takeaways:

• There is a delicate balance between urbanization and keeping of our forestry. If we continue developing at the rate which we are going, in the end, mother Earth would not be able to sustain us
• Technology might be the key to providing the needs for our burgeoning population

Issues for Future Discussions:

• Answering Yali's question: "Why is that you white people developed much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?" How can we bring these technology to help developing countries to progress faster and thereby helping them to 'have more cargo'. What are some limiting factors that restrict us from helping Yali? Patents? Intellectual Property Rights? One key factor to feeding the world's population in 2050 is fair trade, how can we achieve fair trade?

Ratings for Lesson:

• 7/10! While I managed to have some takeaways, I didn't really 'enjoy' the lesson as much, the content just didn't 'excite' me as compared to what biomedical showed me.