Biotechnology,Environment,andSocio-EconomicImpacts.docVIP

Case Study for IMPRESS: Biotechnology Anthony Arundel, Ivo Demandt and Rene Kemp MERIT 1. Introduction Biotechnology involves the use biological organisms, systems and processes to facilitate industrial, pharmaceutical, and agricultural processes. Biotechnological processes offer a range of environmental benefits, through both end-of-pipe applications to clean polluted soil, water or air and in clean production technologies. An example of the latter is the use of enzymes in industrial and food processing. Environmental benefits can occur through the use of less environmentally harmful feedstocks, lower temperature operations which can save energy, and through improved recycling. It is important to have a good definition for ‘biotechnology’. Sharp (1991) discusses three different ‘biotechnologies’. In industrial applications, the first generation consists of simple processes that have been in use for several millennia to make beer and cheese, while second generation biotechnologies include more complex systems based on products produced by micro-organisms, such as the use of enzymes in manufacturing. The third generation is generally assumed to be based on genetic engineering, although other technologies such as peptide synthesis are usually included. Often, first, second and third generation biotechnologies can be used to achieve the same result, creating alternative technological choices. The use of biotechnology in health applications has attracted the lion’s share of biotechnology investment in Europe and North America (Muller et al, 1997; Morrison and Giovanetti, 1998). Yet the future environmental and employment impacts of advanced biotechnology is probably greatest in several resource-based sectors, which include both extraction industries such as mining and forestry and resource-based manufacturing sectors such as petroleum refining and pulp and paper (Arundel and Rose, 1998; Autio et al, 1997; CBS Taskforce, 1997; Tils and Sorup, 1997), and in the agro-f