BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

GENETIC ENGINEERING AND FOOD SECURITY : RELATED ISSUES

Author: Jeevan Kumar

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/ BIISSj2003v24n2a3

ABSTRACT

The article is an attempt to deal with issues related to the' efforts of contemporary scientists to reorganize life of plants and animals at the genetic level. While the number of genetically engineered products like pharmaceuticals, gene therapy, transgenic plants and animals is increasing rapidly and finding their place in the market, the controversy with respect to their seemingly adverse social, economic, hygienic and environmental consequences is also rising at the same time. In particular, in the agricultural sector, biotechnology is moving fast to produce genetically engineered transgenic crops in order to meet food deficiency and sustain world agriculture: But concern seems to echo in various parts of the world with respect to ultimate hazards likely to be posed by the transgenic crops to health, environment and bio-diversity. As a result, citizen groups, consumers, NGOs, environment activists, scientists, etc. now advocate for more regulatory measures at the global level for monitoring the production and controlling the quality of various transgenic crops. Locked between the need to guarantee 'food security' on the one hand, and the constraints likely to be imposed by several restrictive and regulatory measures at the global level, on the other, the new genetic revolution in the field of agriculture is now confronted with a major dilemma.