This class we discuss about BioBusiness Revolution: Agribiology, Environmental Life Sciences and Industrial Biotechnology. This is actually an appealing topic to me personally, because it suggests some solutions for my country, Vietnam, a poor developing agriculture-based country.
As usual, prof started class by showing a short clip, “Humans”. The clip is a brief of human’s impact on environment. It is the same as other topics we have discussed from the first class, how human is damaging our nature, but this clip goes further, giving potential trend of moving out of the Earth. It is scary, because this, from my viewpoint, is an unavoidable future for human. Sooner or later, if we cannot decelerate this speed of exploitation, we will have to think of another home outside the universe. This vision is also illustrated in media, e.g. in the cartoon “Wall-E”, in which the Earth is depicted as a huge disposal area and human has to leave it. We need to take action soon, to save this Earth to our precedents, the question is: How?
Our class today is part of the answer: BioBusiness.
We have to admit one big problem currently: overpopulation. The UN anticipates global population will grow from 6.7 bil today to 9.2 bil by 2015. Overpopulation is the root of numerous problems: rising demand of products and commodity leads to an escalating exploitation of natural resources to meet the needs; rising demand of housing leads to an overtake in agricultural land, as a result it creates shortage of food; etc. This fact triggers scientist to cope with the overpopulation problem by making sure the standard living condition in this context.
Agriculture biological technology is a solution. We watched a clip demonstrating how agribiology can change the world by improving productivity in crops, creating more food in less land (as a matter of fact, we are feeding more people in less land – about 50% decrease of land in 45 years from 1961 to 2006) and saving environment. It deals with the problem of drown by using water more efficiently and also the problem of energy by providing the new environmental friendly energy bio-fuel.
The argibiology and agribiotechnology solution was also supported by the idea of tower garden presented by our classmate Quek Wenxin Anneliese. Essentially, this is a short tower that “circulate nutrient-rich water for three minutes, four times an hour, to feed the root system of plants situated up the sides of the tower.” With one tower like this, we can not only grow up to 20 plants but also recycle the water for several circulations. I think this idea was stunning, as it deals with problem of land shortage and also drowning issue. However, if it is feasible to apply this tower in real life is another story, because in general, I doubt that people will be willing to pay a large amount of money (the article doesn’t refer to the price of setup) to have a private garden in their house. The use of electricity is another concern, but think about it, if we can apply solar energy in associating with this garden tower, it would be great.
As we moved on, the issue of food security was raised. Food security, according to FAO definition, is “a condition where all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. Obviously, famine is a challenge to developing countries, especially in Africa - with 38 mil facing starvation (2003). However, to solve this problem, it is just simple how to produce more food, but rather how to distribute food equally, or how to accelerate food production in starving countries.
“There is enough on this planet for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed”
Mahatma Gandhi
Agribiology may be considered a solution to cope with famine; however, it can only with acceptance from people. Take GM food for example; even though it creates more food with high productivity, people are still reluctant to use it as concern of health and environment effect. Even starving countries like Ethiopia refuse GM food when being proposed to help. In his presentation “GM food: Monster or Saviour?”, Yong Hefeng Edison trigger some arguments relating to this issue.
After all, it is always the problem of sustainability.
“When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability”
Gurinder Shahi
Key takeaways:
1. BioBusiness, including Agribiology and agribiotechnology, is a solution to deal with problem of famine and sustainability of the world and is potential to develop more in near future.
2. However, we can only make its full advantages of this field when people accept it as a healthy and environmentally friendly technology.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Week 7
This class we discuss about BioBusiness Revolution: Agribiology, Environmental Life Sciences and Industrial Biotechnology. This is actually an appealing topic to me personally, because it suggests some solutions for my country, Vietnam, a poor developing agriculture-based country.
As usual, prof started class by showing a short clip, “Humans”. The clip is a brief of human’s impact on environment. It is the same as other topics we have discussed from the first class, how human is damaging our nature, but this clip goes further, giving potential trend of moving out of the Earth. It is scary, because this, from my viewpoint, is an unavoidable future for human. Sooner or later, if we cannot decelerate this speed of exploitation, we will have to think of another home outside the universe. This vision is also illustrated in media, e.g. in the cartoon “Wall-E”, in which the Earth is depicted as a huge disposal area and human has to leave it. We need to take action soon, to save this Earth to our precedents, the question is: How?
Our class today is part of the answer: BioBusiness.
We have to admit one big problem currently: overpopulation. The UN anticipates global population will grow from 6.7 bil today to 9.2 bil by 2015. Overpopulation is the root of numerous problems: rising demand of products and commodity leads to an escalating exploitation of natural resources to meet the needs; rising demand of housing leads to an overtake in agricultural land, as a result it creates shortage of food; etc. This fact triggers scientist to cope with the overpopulation problem by making sure the standard living condition in this context.
Agriculture biological technology is a solution. We watched a clip demonstrating how agribiology can change the world by improving productivity in crops, creating more food in less land (as a matter of fact, we are feeding more people in less land – about 50% decrease of land in 45 years from 1961 to 2006) and saving environment. It deals with the problem of drown by using water more efficiently and also the problem of energy by providing the new environmental friendly energy bio-fuel.
The argibiology and agribiotechnology solution was also supported by the idea of tower garden presented by our classmate Quek Wenxin Anneliese. Essentially, this is a short tower that “circulate nutrient-rich water for three minutes, four times an hour, to feed the root system of plants situated up the sides of the tower.” With one tower like this, we can not only grow up to 20 plants but also recycle the water for several circulations. I think this idea was stunning, as it deals with problem of land shortage and also drowning issue. However, if it is feasible to apply this tower in real life is another story, because in general, I doubt that people will be willing to pay a large amount of money (the article doesn’t refer to the price of setup) to have a private garden in their house. The use of electricity is another concern, but think about it, if we can apply solar energy in associating with this garden tower, it would be great.
As we moved on, the issue of food security was raised. Food security, according to FAO definition, is “a condition where all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. Obviously, famine is a challenge to developing countries, especially in Africa - with 38 mil facing starvation (2003). However, to solve this problem, it is just simple how to produce more food, but rather how to distribute food equally, or how to accelerate food production in starving countries.
“There is enough on this planet for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed”
Mahatma Gandhi
Agribiology may be considered a solution to cope with famine; however, it can only with acceptance from people. Take GM food for example; even though it creates more food with high productivity, people are still reluctant to use it as concern of health and environment effect. Even starving countries like Ethiopia refuse GM food when being proposed to help. In his presentation “GM food: Monster or Saviour?”, Yong Hefeng Edison trigger some arguments relating to this issue.
After all, it is always the problem of sustainability.
“When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability”
Gurinder Shahi
Key takeaways:
1. BioBusiness, including Agribiology and agribiotechnology, is a solution to deal with problem of famine and sustainability of the world and is potential to develop more in near future.
2. However, we can only make its full advantages of this field when people accept it as a healthy and environmentally friendly technology.
As usual, prof started class by showing a short clip, “Humans”. The clip is a brief of human’s impact on environment. It is the same as other topics we have discussed from the first class, how human is damaging our nature, but this clip goes further, giving potential trend of moving out of the Earth. It is scary, because this, from my viewpoint, is an unavoidable future for human. Sooner or later, if we cannot decelerate this speed of exploitation, we will have to think of another home outside the universe. This vision is also illustrated in media, e.g. in the cartoon “Wall-E”, in which the Earth is depicted as a huge disposal area and human has to leave it. We need to take action soon, to save this Earth to our precedents, the question is: How?
Our class today is part of the answer: BioBusiness.
We have to admit one big problem currently: overpopulation. The UN anticipates global population will grow from 6.7 bil today to 9.2 bil by 2015. Overpopulation is the root of numerous problems: rising demand of products and commodity leads to an escalating exploitation of natural resources to meet the needs; rising demand of housing leads to an overtake in agricultural land, as a result it creates shortage of food; etc. This fact triggers scientist to cope with the overpopulation problem by making sure the standard living condition in this context.
Agriculture biological technology is a solution. We watched a clip demonstrating how agribiology can change the world by improving productivity in crops, creating more food in less land (as a matter of fact, we are feeding more people in less land – about 50% decrease of land in 45 years from 1961 to 2006) and saving environment. It deals with the problem of drown by using water more efficiently and also the problem of energy by providing the new environmental friendly energy bio-fuel.
The argibiology and agribiotechnology solution was also supported by the idea of tower garden presented by our classmate Quek Wenxin Anneliese. Essentially, this is a short tower that “circulate nutrient-rich water for three minutes, four times an hour, to feed the root system of plants situated up the sides of the tower.” With one tower like this, we can not only grow up to 20 plants but also recycle the water for several circulations. I think this idea was stunning, as it deals with problem of land shortage and also drowning issue. However, if it is feasible to apply this tower in real life is another story, because in general, I doubt that people will be willing to pay a large amount of money (the article doesn’t refer to the price of setup) to have a private garden in their house. The use of electricity is another concern, but think about it, if we can apply solar energy in associating with this garden tower, it would be great.
As we moved on, the issue of food security was raised. Food security, according to FAO definition, is “a condition where all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. Obviously, famine is a challenge to developing countries, especially in Africa - with 38 mil facing starvation (2003). However, to solve this problem, it is just simple how to produce more food, but rather how to distribute food equally, or how to accelerate food production in starving countries.
“There is enough on this planet for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed”
Mahatma Gandhi
Agribiology may be considered a solution to cope with famine; however, it can only with acceptance from people. Take GM food for example; even though it creates more food with high productivity, people are still reluctant to use it as concern of health and environment effect. Even starving countries like Ethiopia refuse GM food when being proposed to help. In his presentation “GM food: Monster or Saviour?”, Yong Hefeng Edison trigger some arguments relating to this issue.
After all, it is always the problem of sustainability.
“When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability”
Gurinder Shahi
Key takeaways:
1. BioBusiness, including Agribiology and agribiotechnology, is a solution to deal with problem of famine and sustainability of the world and is potential to develop more in near future.
2. However, we can only make its full advantages of this field when people accept it as a healthy and environmentally friendly technology.
Week 7
This class we discuss about BioBusiness Revolution: Agribiology, Environmental Life Sciences and Industrial Biotechnology. This is actually an appealing topic to me personally, because it suggests some solutions for my country, Vietnam, a poor developing agriculture-based country.
As usual, prof started class by showing a short clip, “Humans”. The clip is a brief of human’s impact on environment. It is the same as other topics we have discussed from the first class, how human is damaging our nature, but this clip goes further, giving potential trend of moving out of the Earth. It is scary, because this, from my viewpoint, is an unavoidable future for human. Sooner or later, if we cannot decelerate this speed of exploitation, we will have to think of another home outside the universe. This vision is also illustrated in media, e.g. in the cartoon “Wall-E”, in which the Earth is depicted as a huge disposal area and human has to leave it. We need to take action soon, to save this Earth to our precedents, the question is: How?
Our class today is part of the answer: BioBusiness.
We have to admit one big problem currently: overpopulation. The UN anticipates global population will grow from 6.7 bil today to 9.2 bil by 2015. Overpopulation is the root of numerous problems: rising demand of products and commodity leads to an escalating exploitation of natural resources to meet the needs; rising demand of housing leads to an overtake in agricultural land, as a result it creates shortage of food; etc. This fact triggers scientist to cope with the overpopulation problem by making sure the standard living condition in this context.
Agriculture biological technology is a solution. We watched a clip demonstrating how agribiology can change the world by improving productivity in crops, creating more food in less land (as a matter of fact, we are feeding more people in less land – about 50% decrease of land in 45 years from 1961 to 2006) and saving environment. It deals with the problem of drown by using water more efficiently and also the problem of energy by providing the new environmental friendly energy bio-fuel.
The argibiology and agribiotechnology solution was also supported by the idea of tower garden presented by our classmate Quek Wenxin Anneliese. Essentially, this is a short tower that “circulate nutrient-rich water for three minutes, four times an hour, to feed the root system of plants situated up the sides of the tower.” With one tower like this, we can not only grow up to 20 plants but also recycle the water for several circulations. I think this idea was stunning, as it deals with problem of land shortage and also drowning issue. However, if it is feasible to apply this tower in real life is another story, because in general, I doubt that people will be willing to pay a large amount of money (the article doesn’t refer to the price of setup) to have a private garden in their house. The use of electricity is another concern, but think about it, if we can apply solar energy in associating with this garden tower, it would be great.
As we moved on, the issue of food security was raised. Food security, according to FAO definition, is “a condition where all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. Obviously, famine is a challenge to developing countries, especially in Africa - with 38 mil facing starvation (2003). However, to solve this problem, it is just simple how to produce more food, but rather how to distribute food equally, or how to accelerate food production in starving countries.
“There is enough on this planet for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed”
Mahatma Gandhi
Agribiology may be considered a solution to cope with famine; however, it can only with acceptance from people. Take GM food for example; even though it creates more food with high productivity, people are still reluctant to use it as concern of health and environment effect. Even starving countries like Ethiopia refuse GM food when being proposed to help. In his presentation “GM food: Monster or Saviour?”, Yong Hefeng Edison trigger some arguments relating to this issue.
After all, it is always the problem of sustainability.
“When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability”
Gurinder Shahi
Key takeaways:
1. BioBusiness, including Agribiology and agribiotechnology, is a solution to deal with problem of famine and sustainability of the world and is potential to develop more in near future.
2. However, we can only make its full advantages of this field when people accept it as a healthy and environmentally friendly technology.
As usual, prof started class by showing a short clip, “Humans”. The clip is a brief of human’s impact on environment. It is the same as other topics we have discussed from the first class, how human is damaging our nature, but this clip goes further, giving potential trend of moving out of the Earth. It is scary, because this, from my viewpoint, is an unavoidable future for human. Sooner or later, if we cannot decelerate this speed of exploitation, we will have to think of another home outside the universe. This vision is also illustrated in media, e.g. in the cartoon “Wall-E”, in which the Earth is depicted as a huge disposal area and human has to leave it. We need to take action soon, to save this Earth to our precedents, the question is: How?
Our class today is part of the answer: BioBusiness.
We have to admit one big problem currently: overpopulation. The UN anticipates global population will grow from 6.7 bil today to 9.2 bil by 2015. Overpopulation is the root of numerous problems: rising demand of products and commodity leads to an escalating exploitation of natural resources to meet the needs; rising demand of housing leads to an overtake in agricultural land, as a result it creates shortage of food; etc. This fact triggers scientist to cope with the overpopulation problem by making sure the standard living condition in this context.
Agriculture biological technology is a solution. We watched a clip demonstrating how agribiology can change the world by improving productivity in crops, creating more food in less land (as a matter of fact, we are feeding more people in less land – about 50% decrease of land in 45 years from 1961 to 2006) and saving environment. It deals with the problem of drown by using water more efficiently and also the problem of energy by providing the new environmental friendly energy bio-fuel.
The argibiology and agribiotechnology solution was also supported by the idea of tower garden presented by our classmate Quek Wenxin Anneliese. Essentially, this is a short tower that “circulate nutrient-rich water for three minutes, four times an hour, to feed the root system of plants situated up the sides of the tower.” With one tower like this, we can not only grow up to 20 plants but also recycle the water for several circulations. I think this idea was stunning, as it deals with problem of land shortage and also drowning issue. However, if it is feasible to apply this tower in real life is another story, because in general, I doubt that people will be willing to pay a large amount of money (the article doesn’t refer to the price of setup) to have a private garden in their house. The use of electricity is another concern, but think about it, if we can apply solar energy in associating with this garden tower, it would be great.
As we moved on, the issue of food security was raised. Food security, according to FAO definition, is “a condition where all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. Obviously, famine is a challenge to developing countries, especially in Africa - with 38 mil facing starvation (2003). However, to solve this problem, it is just simple how to produce more food, but rather how to distribute food equally, or how to accelerate food production in starving countries.
“There is enough on this planet for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed”
Mahatma Gandhi
Agribiology may be considered a solution to cope with famine; however, it can only with acceptance from people. Take GM food for example; even though it creates more food with high productivity, people are still reluctant to use it as concern of health and environment effect. Even starving countries like Ethiopia refuse GM food when being proposed to help. In his presentation “GM food: Monster or Saviour?”, Yong Hefeng Edison trigger some arguments relating to this issue.
After all, it is always the problem of sustainability.
“When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability”
Gurinder Shahi
Key takeaways:
1. BioBusiness, including Agribiology and agribiotechnology, is a solution to deal with problem of famine and sustainability of the world and is potential to develop more in near future.
2. However, we can only make its full advantages of this field when people accept it as a healthy and environmentally friendly technology.
Week 5
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an important factor in the modern context, when information is gold and effective communication is the “shovel” to dig the gold. The issue of ICT is getting more and more attention along with the globalization trend all over the world, where the world becomes flat, the national boundary is blurred.
"ICT is the catalyst that facilitates the knowledge revolution"
-Gurinder Shahi-
Some issues refer to ICT that we should take into consideration is mass media, the Internet, wireless, and interactive telecommunication. ICT has a short history with only about one century development, but in that short period of time, ICT has changed the world overall, from the means to communicate, entertain to educate. However, at that point, our Prof Gurinder Shahi claims that ICT has not reached its utmost capacity: in the first revolution of human in agriculture, we raised the productivity by 25 times by replacing stone appliances with metal ones; the second revolution in 17th century, we also raise the productivity by 25 times thanks to industrialization; but the ICT revolution only raises the productivity by 5 times. Why does such a breakthrough make such inconsiderable effect? I myself think it is the issue of measure, because the industrialization has improved the productivity to nearly reach its maximum potential so that the advancement is not so apparent. However, Prof refers to previous lession
"ICT is the catalyst that facilitates the knowledge revolution"
-Gurinder Shahi-
Some issues refer to ICT that we should take into consideration is mass media, the Internet, wireless, and interactive telecommunication. ICT has a short history with only about one century development, but in that short period of time, ICT has changed the world overall, from the means to communicate, entertain to educate. However, at that point, our Prof Gurinder Shahi claims that ICT has not reached its utmost capacity: in the first revolution of human in agriculture, we raised the productivity by 25 times by replacing stone appliances with metal ones; the second revolution in 17th century, we also raise the productivity by 25 times thanks to industrialization; but the ICT revolution only raises the productivity by 5 times. Why does such a breakthrough make such inconsiderable effect? I myself think it is the issue of measure, because the industrialization has improved the productivity to nearly reach its maximum potential so that the advancement is not so apparent. However, Prof refers to previous lession
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