Source: Duvick, D.N. 1995. Biotechnology is compatible with sustainable agriculture. J. Agric. Environ. Ethics 8:112-125.

This article explores the question of whether or not biotechnology is a useful tool for achieving sustainability in agriculture. Duvick considers the desirable effects that biotechnology could have. He believes biotechnology can yield moderate benefits to agriculture's sustainability in the medium term, and can be a highly effective tool in the long term. Biotechnology would make crop diversification easier because alternative crops could be introduced and adapted to new areas. As gene maps improve over an extended period of working with biotechnology, they will become an important aid to crop breeders' ability to create disease and pest resistant varieties, as well as varieties that are adapted to poor soil and climate conditions. In this way, it could strengthen community structure by making family farms more productive and less dependent on chemical pest and disease controls. Although the use of biotechnology requires input from outside the farm, this can be justified because of the advantages one would get over using a locally bred, but inferior, strain of seed. Biotechnology will also increase the productivity and profit of large factory farms and agribusinesses. To argue that it is improper to adopt biotechnology for these reasons is to assume that family farms are superior because these large corporations and industrial agribusinesses are unethical and environmentally destructive. This generalization is not always true. Because biotechnology can be desirable for sustainability, especially in the medium to long term, and because biotechnology is not unethical, Duvick supports its use in agriculture. It is important that those who intend to use it understand that time is needed to realize all the benefits of biotechnology.

Abstract Author: Jesse Alt, 18 November 1997.

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