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Table 6. Potential advantages of genetic engineering for different types of actors (Classification developed by the author). |
| Actors |
Advantages |
Global society |
- new avenue of technological development based on living
matter, biology and renewability, instead of being based on chemistry
and fossil resources. - a means of more sustainable development in the 21st Century. - a means (among others) to cope with climate change: faster breeding of new adapted varieties, plant-chemistry instead of petroleum chemistry. - because of less production losses, the same amount of production can be obtained on a smaller area, or a greater amount on the same surface. So it is less necessary to increase cultivated area by deforestation or cultivation of new land. |
| Consumers | - potential increase in foodstuffs (interesting in LDCs), and slightly cheaper foodstuffs. - less risk from some chemical pesticides in the environment and in food. - products suited to specific demands (nutraceuticals, non-allergenic products, foodstuffs enriched or limited in certain components). - better nutritional balance for some foodstuffs. - lower prices for various vaccines and therapeutics. - improvement in the overall standard of living if the gains in productivity are shared by all. |
| Public authorities | - it help to maintain the competitiveness of biotech and seed
industry in the country. - means of developing greater sustainability. - useful in contributing to solve certain problems (pollution, adaptation to climate change). |
| Public research | - biotechnology = an indispensable tool for knowledge, understanding and discovery, to allow a better comprehension of many biological mechanisms unexplained up to now. |
| Farmers and agronomists | - easier to grow (simplified treatments), greater flexibility
in interventions, possible means for improving income.
- decrease in losses, and better adaptation of plants to their environment. - less pollution by pesticides, mold (fungi), or impurities. - less need to increase cultivated surfaces, possibility of more sustainable agriculture. |
| Distribution | - cheaper products which can be better conserved. - supply diversification, potential increase in profit margin on products with high added value. |
| Food-industry firms | - diversified raw materials which are cheaper and better adapted to a variety of uses, with less losses. |
| Seed firms | - necessary to cope with competition and avoid the dying of
French and European seed industry. - useful tool for introducing new traits into plants (resistance, composition, etc.). - allow quicker selection and better competitive resistance. |
| Agro-chemical & biotech firms | - makes it possible
to go beyond the limits of chemistry; a new avenue of development.
- new markets; and perhaps innovation rent allowing to develop this sector. |
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