Biotechnology is essentially the use of biology to develop products and technologies that help improve human life and protect the environment. The technology harnesses cellular, biomolecular, and molecular processes through which lives can get better and contribute to improving the health of planet earth.
Biotech has been used to make useful food products such as bread and cheese since the last 6000 years. Nowadays, we use these processes to preserve dairy products in the form of curds and butter.
In the modern era, biotechnology offers breakthrough products and technologies to not just reduce our environmental footprint, it feeds the hungry, uses less and cleaner energy, and produces more safer and efficient industrial products.
BUILDING A HEALTHY WORLD
As a result of harnessing nature’s own toolbox and using our own DNA, biotechnology contributes to healing the world in so many ways, such as reduction in infectious disease rates, saving lives of thousands of children. It helps eliminate serious, life-threatening conditions that affect millions of people around the world. Biotech optimizes health outcomes by adapting treatments to each individual’s needs. Biotech is not just constantly developing tools for the detection of disease with greater precision, it is helping overcome serious diseases and everyday threats faced by the developing world.
MAKING WORLD A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE
The Biotechnology industry makes use of biological processes such as fermentation and biocatalysts such as enzymes, yeast, and microbes to create microscopic manufacturing plants. Through the advancement of biotechnology, chemical manufacturing processes can be streamlined by 80-90%. It has made cleaning clothes possible at a lower temperature and saving as much as $4.1 billion annually. Biotech technology has reduced operating costs by 50% or more by improving manufacturing process efficiency. Through the use of biotech we are weaning ourselves off petrochemicals. Biotechnology is making this world a better place to live by not merely helping cut greenhouse gas emissions by almost 52% through using biofuels, it has helped reduce the water usage and waste generation.
IMPROVED FOOD QUALITY AND PRODUCTION
The biotechnology sector contributes to improved insect resistance, herbicide tolerance, and environmentally sustainable farming practices. Growing crops with fewer inputs while producing higher yields. Biotech is actively feeding the world through the use of fewer agricultural chemicals-reducing runoff of these products into the environment. By using biotech crops, farmers are able to reduce pesticide applications and the amount of time they spend tilling their fields. Biotech has enabled producing crops with enhanced nutritional profiles that can correct nutrient and vitamin deficiencies. Biotech also ensures the absence of allergens and toxins, such as mycotoxin, in everyday food.It has enhanced the nutritional value of vegetable oils and food products.
FINALLY,
The biotechnology industry has produced over 250 health products and vaccines, many for diseases previously untreatable. In addition to increasing yields and reducing pest damage, agricultural biotechnology is used by more than 13.3 million farmers worldwide. Throughout North America, around fifty biorefineries are being built to test and refine biofuel and chemical production technologies using renewable biomass. This will assist in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The biotechnology industry continues to develop. As a result, we are better prepared to face society’s most pressing challenges.
BIOTECH INDUSTRY FOR INVESTORS
Investing in biotech is very different from investing in other industries. Due to the extensive research, development, and testing of biotech companies, they usually have high operating costs. Meanwhile, Regulatory roadblocks can interrupt the introduction of new products; for example, some countries prohibit GM plants, and US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval can be a lengthy and costly process. Hence, Biotech investments can be very risky, to be precise.
To invest in biotechnology, however, investors do not have to own individual company stocks. To invest in biotech, one of the easiest methods is to buy an exchange-traded fund (ETF) or find a list of biotech stocks to buy in one of the previous articles. Investors can obtain a diversified portfolio of biotech companies in a single trade from these funds.
