Session 7

Session 7

Today’s lesson mainly focuses on the bio business in terms of food and other products. Agricultural revolution is also covered during class. The GM food discussion brought about good discussions during the class. I guess this topic is something everyone interested and it is present in everyday life.

Agriculture revolution brought about by Norman Borlaug significantly improves the agriculture methods and yield of production. As a result, we are now able to produce more crops on the same piece of land. Not only the yield of production is improved, the crops are now more drought resistant or pest resistant depending on the situation of the land and thus protect the interests of the farmers and provide a steady food supply worldwide.

The genetically modified food even till today still many people doubt its safety to health. It is not proven that the GM food is definitely not harmful to the body but personally I am willing to give it a try because at least it is proven that within 10-20 years it is very safe. Moreover, some GM food are much more nutritious and delicious so I am willing to consume it and promote its popularity. I have eaten this genetically modified watermelon, which the peel is only one fifth the thickness of a normal watermelon. Moreover, it is seedless and very sweet. If this genetically modified watermelon become popular,  I believe that the demand of it will be large and few people will actually think about if it is safe to eat.

The issue I want to discuss about is that even though current technology allows us to grow or produce many kinds of resources, I think we should not rely too much on technology but to reexamine our needs and greed. It is true that in the near future we may be able to grow almost everything we need but in order to solve the root problems that happen to our mother earth, we need to reduce our greed for material wealth.  As Mabatma Gandhi has said,” there is enough on this planet for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed.” No matter how much we can produce, if our greed keeps expanding, the earth will never be able to recover from the damage we have incurred on it. Hence in my opinion, while we are developing new technologies to allow us to use the resources more efficiently, we must start to educate our next generation the good practices such as taking public transport, recycle reuse and reduce etc.

Overall I give this lesson 9/10 as the topic is interesting and the discussion is in depth.