2.) What are the potential risks of food biotechnology to the environment and to the issue of world hunger?

POTENTIAL RISKS OF FOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY TO THE ENVIRONMENT:


1.Genetically modified food may produce new proteins and it may act as new allergen and can induce allergic reactions in humans.
2.Agriculture  biotechnology technique like genetic engineering uses antibiotic resistant gene as markers,and consumption of food products which has got these antibiotic resistant genes may reduce the effectiveness of antibiotics.
3.Addition of genetic material by genetic engineering may interact with the pathways involved  in the production of toxic substances produced by plant.
4.Agriculture biotechnology may increase the contamination of soil and plants by heavy metals ,by adding  one or more  new genes to the plants.
5.This technology may induce health risk to humans as a result  of proteins produced by newly added genes to the plants.It may increase the environment of toxic fungi.
6.Long term affect of these genetically engineered food products is still not known,so in future  we may come across new unknown type of health  risks in humans or animals.

1.) What are the potential benefits of food biotechnology to the environment and to the issue of world hunger?

 Biotechnology Benefits

The development of genetically modified foods and other agricultural biotechnology products has generated significant public debate. The potential for creating foods enhanced for health benefits or increasing crop yields was tantalizing, but there was also widespread concern about the technology’s health and environmental risks.

The Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology spotlighted policy issues arising from these discussions and served as a credible, honest broker, bringing together people with differing viewpoints to examine the opportunities and challenges of agricultural biotechnology.

The benefits are :

• The production of safer foods by lowering the amount of allergy-causing proteins
• Crops that are tolerant to droughts and floods
• Crops that are tolerant to soils with high levels of with salt or metals
• Crops that are tolerant to heat and cold