The genetic revolution
In the light of the current food crisis, to increase agricultural productivity on a global scale, it’s possible to expand total cultivated land, but the areas which are currently available are less and less: in Asia, for example, arable land is already all employed. In any case, the extension of arable land would allow for an increase of agricultural production by only 20% and would cause a more substantial environmental impact of the use of natural resources. As an alternative, it would be possible to intensify production itself, introducing even more invasive techniques than those currently adopted but this would lead to an increase in production which wouldn’t be higher than 10%. The most substantial contribution to the increase in the availability of agricultural products, instead, seems to come from the improvement of biotechnologies which would determine a 70% increase in global agricultural production.
Biotechnologies, as defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992, don’t concern only Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) but to a range of products as vaccines, improved varieties, micrpropagated plants (virus-free). Application of technologies to agriculture must aim to resolve famine and poverty problems in developing countries, allowing to increase the production of local small farmers and must conform to strict criteria related to biosecurity, that is men’s health, biodiversity preservation and ecological sustainability. Brazil, India and China, the countries with greatest population growth, are currently achieving cutting edge results in the field of agricultural biotechnologies. Among developing countries (DCs), instead, 23 countries are capable of applying biotechnologies through development projects; 14 develop and apply some biotechnologies. Thanks to the introduction of varieties of cultivations which give high returns, chemical products and new irrigation techniques, the so-called “green revolution” in the ‘60s and ‘70s has increased crops yields and has helped millions of people to fight famine and poverty. Today, though, many small farmers can’t move beyond subsistence agriculture and every day more than 854 million people, according to the latest FAO estimates, don’t have enough to eat. Billions of people suffer of trace elements deficiencies, a form of insidious malnutrition caused by unbalanced nutrition. And in the following thirty years there will be two billion people in the world which will need to be fed – whereas natural resources on which agriculture depends become more and more frail.
Special reports
-
30 July 2020
Holidays, yes! but they must be sustainable!
We have been speaking of sustainable behaviours to apply to our daily life, but what happens when we unplug and…
2 July 2014
A hoax? No thank you, I prefer to find out myself!
In Italian, bufala: a hoax, also means a female buffalo...
8 March 2022
8 March. We remember Rosalind Franklin, the great female DNA scientist.
DNA was first isolated by Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss biochemist in 1869. It was a brilliant, but not complicated operation:…
-
27 February 2022
In search of the riders of icebergs
International Polar Bear Day, set up by Polar Bears International, a non-profit organisation, was held on 27 February. The aim…
12 February 2022
A naturalist’s voyage around the world
Charles Darwin was just 22 years old when he set sail on board HMS Beagle...
18 December 2021
The Christmas Star Tradition
Let's discover together stories and legends about the Christmas Star...
-
15 September 2021
Can you be intelligent without a brain?
Can you be intelligent without a brain? The answer is "in a certain sense, yes" and this is demonstrated by…
26 July 2021
Japanese beetles and other alien species
There is a beetle that has been invading the Italian countryside and cities for some time now, a small insect…
16 June 2021
A turtle’s life
World Sea Turtle Day is held on 16 June. First established in 2008, the day is now supported by Sea…
-
30 July 2020
Holidays, yes! but they must be sustainable!
We have been speaking of sustainable behaviours to apply to our daily life, but what happens when we unplug and…
2 July 2014
A hoax? No thank you, I prefer to find out myself!
In Italian, bufala: a hoax, also means a female buffalo...
-
8 March 2022
8 March. We remember Rosalind Franklin, the great female DNA scientist.
DNA was first isolated by Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss biochemist in 1869. It was a brilliant, but not complicated operation:…
27 February 2022
In search of the riders of icebergs
International Polar Bear Day, set up by Polar Bears International, a non-profit organisation, was held on 27 February. The aim…
-
12 February 2022
A naturalist’s voyage around the world
Charles Darwin was just 22 years old when he set sail on board HMS Beagle...
18 December 2021
The Christmas Star Tradition
Let's discover together stories and legends about the Christmas Star...
-
30 July 2020
Holidays, yes! but they must be sustainable!
We have been speaking of sustainable behaviours to apply to our daily life, but what happens when we unplug and…
-
2 July 2014
A hoax? No thank you, I prefer to find out myself!
In Italian, bufala: a hoax, also means a female buffalo...
-
8 March 2022
8 March. We remember Rosalind Franklin, the great female DNA scientist.
DNA was first isolated by Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss biochemist in 1869. It was a brilliant, but not complicated operation:…
From the Multimedia section
Facts
-
CO2 “eating” trees
If a tree “eats” CO2 and produces oxygen it is easy to understand the importance it has in reducing the…
Energy from palm trees
Oils that are obtained from palm trees can be used as alternatives to fossil fuels and their use is about…
-
The Christmas tree tradition
People tell that in Germany, at Christmas Eve, Saint Boniface cut an oak and in that place...
-
The tree and the truffle
Truffles are hypogean (underground) fungi which grow in the presence of particular trees such as oaks, holm oaks and willows,…
-
23 February 2012
CO2 “eating” trees
If a tree “eats” CO2 and produces oxygen it is easy to understand the importance it has in reducing the…
16 May 2011
Energy from palm trees
Oils that are obtained from palm trees can be used as alternatives to fossil fuels and their use is about…
-
13 May 2011
The Christmas tree tradition
People tell that in Germany, at Christmas Eve, Saint Boniface cut an oak and in that place...
16 May 2011
Various uses of the carob tree
Since the antiquity, this evergreen tree has been grown...
-
23 February 2012
CO2 “eating” trees
If a tree “eats” CO2 and produces oxygen it is easy to understand the importance it has in reducing the…
-
16 May 2011
Energy from palm trees
Oils that are obtained from palm trees can be used as alternatives to fossil fuels and their use is about…