Biotechnology

Biotechnology has recently emerged as a technology of promise and peril in the lexicon of environmental controversies. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defines biotechnology as “The application of Science and Technology to living organisms as well as parts, products and models thereof, to alter living or nonliving materials for the production of knowledge, [Page 136]goods and services.” The Convention on Biodiversity defines biotechnology in similar terms in regard to its biosafety protocol and its revenue-sharing agreements for genetic resources.

With genetic engineering, biotechnology became negatively associated with for-profit development.

Early applications in biotechnology promised significant improvements in society roughly corresponding with the enthusiasm for the project of modernism. The vision of putting life processes to work for humans was naturally an extension of the ...