Biotechnology Companies’ Monopoly: Potentially Harming the Diversity and the Sustainability of Agriculture

Abstract

Modern agriculture has started to rely more on the use of biotechnology over the past years in order to intensify the output and nutrition of food in developing countries. The use of generically modified crops, pesticides and herbicides has been increasing and the agricultural market is monopolised by few big companies, that have been questioned on account of their causing potential damage economically, environmentally and socially.

The use of biotechnology has been a controversial topic since it was firstly introduced and taken into use in the 1970s. To this day, biotechnology companies keep breeding and selectively modifying plants in order to enhance some of the most wanted qualities, such as making plants more productive and stronger. It has been questioned how safe the use of the genetically modified crops is in reality, and what kind of long term risks they can potentially bring: the toxins transferring to soil and species, biodiversity and loss of traditional crops for example, which can bring economical struggle for resource poor or smaller scale farmers. Another controversial topic has been the use of intellectual property rights and patents, that the biotechnology companies demand when providing their products to farmers.

This paper will concentrate on economic, environmental and social aspects of biotechnology and the effect of genetically modified organisms, and seeks the answer what type of problems may occur in agricultural industry when being heavily led by biotechnology companies.