Week 7

Today's session covered the second component of the biobusiness revolution, concerning that of agriculture and the environment. What we covered today led me to have an increase in understanding of how our food sources might be threatened as we move along the years, and what are some ways that have been implemented in order to counter act nature's processes.

Prof shared his quote- "When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability". Essentially, this meant that a country has to be self-sufficient and to also not be too dependent on nature, or on others. This might be a little questionable for Singapore in terms of food as we are severely restricted in land area, having already reclaimed land for our newest developments like the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort. It would then question the government's priorities on whether it does want to channel both monetary and non-monetary resources into constructing more infrastructure for aeroponics, hydroponics, and the likes.. Prof also let us in on the various colour of biotechnology that i was previously unaware of! Red/Medical. Blue/Marine. Green/Environmental. White/Industrial.

One other interesting point mentioned was on waste management. That you could either take waste and generate oil from it, which I think would really help save a significant amount of monetary resources from purchasing oil. Or else, there was also the process of taking human faeces and allowing microorganisms to feed off the sewage and generate protein, making………. SHIT CAKES. Yuck, never in my life will I consume them. Well unless I'm really on the brink of dying from starvation. But, ew.

I also did my presentation this week, on how climate change can threaten food security. And one key point of my presentation was on climate change adaptation, which is centred around increasing the agricultural productivity of land despite climate change hazards like droughts, for example. Through my research, I came across this interesting development that has taken place, and which I also shared during the presentation. This specie is known as WEMA, which stands for the Water Efficient Maize for Africa, which is essentially a drought-tolerant maize developed through conventional breeding and incorporating the best technology available internationally.

How WEMA is really useful in drought-prone areas is that it is predicted to significantly increase yields by up to 20%-35% under moderate drought as compared to current variety. This translates to approximately 2,000,000 more tonnes of maize, capable of feeding 21 million people. This is indeed quite a substantial amount, and I never fathomed that such new developments in agricultural seeds could have such a huge positive impact on society.

Furthermore, more of these new developments are found in the 4th Reading. It is stated in the article that different cereal varieties have been developed with a greater tolerance for soil alkalinity, free aluminium, and iron toxics. What proves to be really beneficial is that these varieties will allow agriculture to succeed in acidic areas, hence increasing the amount of arable land. Furthermore, it is stated in the article was that the "greater tolerance of abiotic extremes, such as drought, heat, and cold, will benefit irrigated areas". This development is in sync with that of Project WEMA as mentioned above, and are both good progressions in the area of the agribusiness, ensuring that much of our food will not be affected by unexpected climate hazards.

It was also questioned in the article "How will resource-poor farmers of the world be able to gain access to the products of biotechnology research?" This is because most genetic engineering research is being done by the private sector which holds patents to many inventions or developments. And I thought this to be a very real issue that governments would come to face one time or another. This is quite a debatable issue as smallholder farmers aren't able to contribute significantly to the developmental process, so hence should they then have a piece of the pie? Many might argue that it would be unfair treatment to allow farmers who have had no contribution to the biotechnology developments to have a share of the benefits. However, another school of thought comes from those who believe that these poor farmers are afterall still humans, hence they should have every right to benefit from a development that can prolong their lives and businesses.

This hence brings me to think upon Project WEMA again, where the foundation (the African Agricultural Technology Foundation) will identify smallholder African farmers especially those in sub-saharan Africa, and distribute any drought-tolerant maize varieties developed to the poor farmers without royalty, essentially at the price of regular maize seed. I thought this act was certainly one that was generous of the AATF and is definitely a decision that would allow all farmers, rich or poor, to thoroughly benefit from the advancements of biotechnology.

Apart from the points mentioned above, one other interesting fact of lesson today was that I didn't know we were consuming Genetically Modified food so much. Like prof mentioned kiwis, i never knew those were GM-ed! Cool fact of the day. I guess it just goes to show how we just stuff our faces with food most of the time, not knowing where it was flown over from, how it came about, and the various processes that made it possible for growth and henceforth, consumption by us fatty people (all singaporeans included, haha)

Thus this made today's session really interesting as it widened my perspectives on the food i'm eating, the agricultural processes that were behind its growth, and what can be done to ensure our source of food isn't threatened by the climate, or by other humans ways, like spraying pesticide for example.

On a separate note, I thought more discussion could go on about the whole issue on smallholder farmers benefitting from biotechnology, whether they should be let in on this privilege or not.

With that, I'll rate today's session a 9/10! (: