Write a comparative note on usefulness and harmfulness of biotechnology.

Explanation

i. The harms of biotechnology are as follows:
a. Manufacture of vaccines requires the production of harmful pathogens. Accidental release of these pathogens in air or water can be extremely harmful to the enviroment.
b. Introducing modified genes in crop plants or animals to improve quality can threaten the local breeds.
c. Controlling the inheritance of hereditary characters through cloning may become a matter of serious concern.
d. Use of genetically modified species requires extensive testing .and may have potential long term ill-effects on humans and environment.
e. Excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides produced using biotechnology may allow its entry into the food-web or water resources and result in problems of biomagnification of these toxic compounds.