Biotechnology
...mean roundup ready corn or soybeans to a producer who raises corn or soybeans. It could mean black shank resistant plants to the tobacco producer. It could be the development of super weeds to the unwary. To some it may be the way to solve world hunger and malnutrition. Biotechnology changes its term, depending on the person who is using it.
The true definition of biotechnology, “Means any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use” (www.agronomy.unl.edu/biotechnology.html.) Biotechnology is a world phenomenon, which is the result of the growing populations of the world.
Biotechnology has been utilized for centuries in traditional production processes. Biotechnology dates all the way back to cultures such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Iran which developed the process of brewing beer. Modern biotechnology is only about fifty years old and in the last decades it has been witnessing tremendous developments. The term biotechnology was primarily used in the food processing and agriculture industries, before the year 1971. Since the 1970s, it is also being referred to laboratory based techniques being used in biological research. Biotechnology has applications in four major industrial areas, including health care, crop production and agriculture, non food uses of crops, and environmental uses.
When biotechnology is applied to medical processes it is called red biotechnology. Red biotechnology refers to the use of organisms to produce antibiotics or engineering genetic cures through genomic manipulation. When biotechnology is applied to industrial processes it is called white biotechnology. An example of white biotechnology is using enzymes as industrial catalyst to either produce valuable chemicals or destroy hazardous/polluting...
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