Over 870 million people around the world go about their lives malnourished, day by day. Malnourishment runs rampant in areas of the world such as Africa or India. However, with the widespread use of MAS and the benefits it brings, world hunger can potentially be a thing of the past. Investing in agriculture in areas mentioned earlier is a key step in bringing the turnabout of world hunger. Then, the application of MAS and other technologies can help achieve the rest. (Citation 38)
Marker Assisted Selection will bring a huge amount of crops into the earth through the selection of higher yield traits. This will have an instant effect on the economies of the country or region using MAS. More profits, lower prices, and more people fed. However, MAS is currently substantially expensive, although like gene mapping, the price will drop as more and more MAS takes place.
IMPACTS
The Second Green Revolution
Decades ago, a movement called the Green Revolution was called. The purpose was to increase agriculture production throughout the globe by using genetic breeding, GMO’s, and chemicals. However, a second revolution is desperately need - soon. Why? Because the world’s population is rapidly expanding, and food production must match its rate. By 2050, the Earth will be inhabited with 9 billion hungry mouths to feed. How? Through Marker Assisted Breeding and the benefits that derive from it. Using the fast-track breeding technology derived
Social Impact
Economic Impact
from MAS, critical traits such as higher vitamin A levels in food and highly increased crop yield can be located and used. This “molecular Green Revolution” also comes with another plus: since MAS is easily replicable and can be done to many different strains of the same crop, specific regions can benefit by “…fine-tuning crops to perform in a particular environment, minus additional input...,” (Conniff). Using MAS, crops will be rapidly engineered to match an incredibly quickly growing population. (Citation 21)