Biotechnology in the Mexican countryside. Flowers

From http://www.azc.uam.mx/publicaciones/etp/num6/a7.html on November 18, 2009, 15:06 hrs. The influence of biotechnology in Mexican agriculture: Case studies Michelle Chauvet Teacher-researcher at the Sociology Department, UAM-Azcapotzalco. mcs hp9000a1.uam.mx Yolanda Massieu Teacher-researcher at the Sociology Department, UAM-Azcapotzalco. ymt hp9000a1.uam.mx Introduction On the world of biotechnology applications in agriculture and the environment have been more limited than the predictions made in this regard since the decade of the seventies. However, there are several innovations that have crossed the threshold of the laboratory and / or the pilot and already have a commercial use for several years that allow us to assess their influence. In this paper we present some elements on this influence, they differ from those that occurred in developed countries. In our view, the stakes are different, if we consider the fact that different socio-economic environments in which they develop the agriculture of a group of countries and other.For example, in industrialized nations the effects of biotechnology have a broader spectrum, ranging from increases in productivity of the primary phase to the protest from consumers by the application of advances in genetic engineering in developing of flavors, food additives and preservatives and even food. By environmental groups are also growing concerns about the release in fields of GM plants, because the unknown effects it could have the interaction of these plants with other organisms in the ecosystem. The focus of the controversy is that the letter of biotechnology was their harmony with the environment, however, although advances in biotechnology-called third generation are involved in the genetic code of plants and animals, basic food human transgenic these applications does not necessarily harm the nature. He has entertained the hope that with the use of biotechnology to improve the care of the environment, in fact, it would be possible as there are advances in seed and crop varieties designed to produce transgenic plants containing its own bio-insecticide and or biofertilizer. Especially in growing vegetables is an imminent reduction of agrochemicals to curb environmental degradation. In countries like Mexico, biotecnias applied in search of higher returns for those agricultural sectors of greatest export or technological development, yet the general public ignorant of the methods used in food processing, and this lack of knowledge and organization of consumers is the reason there are no opposing movements to its application in agricultural production or in the food industry. In fact, the food deficit and dependence on the outside in this area changed the grading scale of the impact of biotechnology in relation to that prevailing in more developed societies, here care more about access to food that the origin of them.In other words, there was a question about the methods used in food production, whether it be aggressive toward the environment or health care more about increasing yields and production that allow people to offer large volumes of food at an affordable price. For these reasons, we are inclined to consider the effects of new technologies in agriculture must be assessed in a particular way, because although the case of a crop or application of biotechnology, various conditions that determine its impact is different. Thus, this paper presents the results of case studies that are related to technological innovations in this field, in order to approach the response of a number of questions.