Biotecnología y genómica agrícolas ante la sustentabilidad

Retos para el siglo XXI

Abstract

The present text is an effort of reflection and a challenge: to look for concepts for analyzing the impacts and social responses to biotechnology and agro genomics (BGA in Spanish) in agriculture, exemplified in Mexico by the case of maize (corn), and linking it to the contemporary planning of sustainability. It begins with a reflection on the scientific paradigms for the understanding and manipulation of nature, and the current debate in respect to economic-instrumental rationality for controlling natural resources and living beings in facing the ecological crisis, which has rendered indispensable a reflection on sustainability. It then situates biotechnology and agro genomics as an unprecedented means for manipulation of living beings’ genes, and the repercussions that are implied, as a phenomenon of modernization in agricultural and food production. In ending, an analysis is carried out using the case of maize in Mexico as an example.