Using biotechnology

Context

Biotechnology is the science of using precise, state-of-the-art techniques for improving genetic varieties of, say, fruits and vegetables to make them more pest-resistant or to boost their nutritional value. Biotechnology can give us micro-organisms that act as vaccines, or that treat sewage and even clean up toxic waste. Other techniques can shorten the time it takes a tree to grow to maturity.

Claim

The benefits of biotechnology are not limited to the industrialized world. Unlike many new technologies of our age, biotechnology has been available almost immediately outside the West. Since it builds on traditional agriculture and microbiology to help improve regionally important crops, biotechnology leads directly to that highest goal of developmental politics: self-sufficiency.

At a time when hunger remains a serious problem for perhaps a billion people, and per capita yields of the major cereal grains have leveled off or decreased, biotechnology holds great promise for raising productivity.