Biotechnology helps the environment. By allowing farmers to reduce the use of herbicides and pesticides, the first generation of biotechnology products is helping to reduce herbicide and pesticide use, and future products are expected to yield more environmental benefits. Reduced herbicide and pesticide use means a smaller risk of toxic contamination of both surface and groundwater. In addition, herbicides used in conjunction with genetically engineered plants are often safer for the environment than the herbicides they replace. Bioengineered crops also may reduce the need for farming practices, such as tillage, that result in soil loss.
Biotechnology has tremendous potential to help fight hunger.
Biotechnology developments offer significant potential benefit for developing countries where almost a billion people live in poverty and suffer from chronic hunger. Researchers are developing varieties of staple crops to enable them to survive harsh conditions such as droughts and floods. Biotechnology helps combat diseases. By developing and improving medicines, biotechnology helps fight diseases. Biotechnology has given us new medicinal tools to treat heart disease, multiple sclerosis, hemophilia, hepatitis, and AIDS, among other illnesses.