What's a biotechnology?Biotechnology is the use of living systems and organisms to develop or make products, or "any

technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use" (UN Convention on Biological Diversity,

Art. 2)

Biotechnology has applications in fuor major industrial areas:- Green biotechnology is biotechnology applied to agricultural processes

- Red biotechnology is applied to medical processes- White biotechnology is biotechnology applied to industrial processes

- Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field which addresses biological problems using computational techniques

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Green biotechnologyGreen biotechnology is biotechnology applied to agricultural processes.

- An example would be the selection and domestication of plants via micropropagation.

- Another example is the designing of transgenic plants to grow under specific environments in the presence (or absence) of chemicals.

One hope is that green biotechnology might produce more environmentally friendly solutions than traditional industrial agriculture.

AgricolturePlants are genetic modified food used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified with genetic engineering techniques.

In most cases the aim is : - to introduce a new trait to the plant which does not occur

naturally in the species; - to create resistance to certain pests, diseases, stressful

environmental conditions, resistance to chemical treatments, reduction of spoilage, or improving the nutrient profile of the plant.

Genetically modified food or GM foods

Genetically modified food are food produced from organisms that have had specific changes introduced into their DNA with

the methods of genetic engineering.

Some history

Human genetic manipulation of food began with the domestication of plants and animals through artificial

selection in the ancient times. The process of selective breeding, in which organisms with desired traits (and thus with the desired genes) are used to breed the

next generation and organisms lacking the trait are not bred, is a precursor to the modern concept of genetic modification. With the discovery of DNA in the early

1900s and various advancements in genetic techniques through the 1970s, it became possible to

directly alter the DNA and genes within food.

Genetically modified maize (corn)

Corn used for food and ethanol has been genetically modified to tolerate various herbicides and to express a

protein (from Bacillus thuringiensis) that kills

certain insects.

Corn can be processed into grits, meal and flour

as an ingredient in pancakes, muffins,

doughnuts, breadings and batters, as well as baby foods, meat products,

cereals and some fermented products

Other examples:

Golden rice Canola

Cotton

Blue tomatoes