Societal Implications of Biotechnology and GMOs in Agriculture

생명공학과 GMOs의 농업에 대한 사회적 함의

There are many assertions related to biotechnology and genetically modified organisms(GMOs). Some experts have asserted that GM foods could be dangerous and that there is no reliable evidence that have been demonstrated safe through appropriate tests, and the others asserted these foods are as safe and nutritions as their conventional counterparts. The objectives of this study was to study an societal implications of biotechnology and GMOs in agriculture. To keep the balance in mind the researcher examined not only usefulness but also harmfulness of GMOs, along with the developmental process of biotechnology industry. It was observed that basically, multinational corporations developed GMOs to maximize their profit, and strengthened their control on agriculture and food through GMOs, as observed in alliance among big multinational corporations' food chain cluster and systems. Under the situation, farmers were losing their status as independent producer and were becoming propertied labor for multinational corporation through contract farming. If these trends continuous in the future, multinational corporations will have the control of genetic resources, these may bring about reduction of bio-diversity, thus may lead the opposite direction to eco-friendly agriculture. If multinational corporations' tendency to suppress the latent harmfulness for the profit continuous further, this may lead the degradation phase of farming and agriculture, thus leading negative socio-economic effects as well as culture and religion.