Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)

Biotechnology

Biotechnology is a technique for utilizing organisms to create a product with a specific purpose.
Organisms that are used in general are bacteria. The application of biotechnology involves the principles
of several fields of science, including biology, biochemistry, genetics, microbiology, environment,
machinery, and IT. As the development of science, technology, and community needs, biotechnology
products are increasingly developing.

There are two categories of biotechnology, namely conventional (traditional) biotechnology and modern
biotechnology. Conventional biotechnology is usually done in a simple way. Examples of conventional
biotechnology are the manufacture of tempeh, oncom, cuttings and plant grafts, and so on.
Conventional biotechnology has been applied earlier than modern biotechnology, however conventional
biotechnology is still widely applied in various fields. Modern biotechnology basically uses the principles
of higher science and technology, usually applied on an industrial scale. Examples of modern
biotechnology are biopesticides, GMO crops, making vaccines and hormones, cloning, and stem cells.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)

The rapid development of modern biotechnology brings us to the era of "creation" of organisms with
certain traits, call it Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). GMOs are organisms that have undergone
genetic material modification. The making of GMOs is based on changes in genetic material by mutating,
adding to, or reducing the genetic material of certain organisms. Making new genetic material that is
produced by inserting DNA fragments from different organisms is called recombinant DNA, whereas
organisms with certain traits that are produced are GMO organisms. GMOs have been widely applied in
various fields, including agriculture, animal husbandry, food, and the environment. The following is a
further description of GMOs in agriculture.

GMO in Agriculture

Agriculture is one of the important sectors in GMO applications. The main reason underlying it is to
create organisms with superior properties, so that they can meet the food needs of the community with
certain qualities. GMO organisms in general have the advantage of being resistant to pests, resistant to
various diseases, minimizing the use of pesticides, having larger or unique fruit sizes, and so on.
However, there are also aspects that are considered as pros and cons to GMOs in agriculture, including:

a. Environmental Balance

Planting transgenic organisms is often thought to threaten environmental balance. The superior
properties of plants can be environmentally unfriendly, for example because they are resistant to
certain pesticides, to inhibit the growth of weeds requires additional insecticides. So that excessive use
of pesticides results in chemical fertilization in nature and causes an imbalance in soil content, and
ultimately disrupts the life of soil organisms.

For example, controversial Bt Bollguard cotton development in South Sulawesi. This plant has been
inserted a gene from Bacillus thuringiensis that is resistant to pests of borer caterpillars (Helicoverpa
armigera). Unfortunately, there are other pests that attack this plant, for example the pest Sundapterex
sp., Which cannot be resisted by the Bacillus thuringiensis gene, so that it still requires spraying a special
insecticide to overcome the pest problem that was once known as empoaska. Things like this that can
not be accepted by the general public, because the use of specific but diverse pesticides, adapted to the
resistance of GMO crops.

In addition, the issue of environmental balance is also affected by plant varieties in nature. With the
existence of plants that are superior, will rule out planting plants that are natural. Thus, gradually the
diversity of species and number of natural plants will be less and cause the food chain in natural
ecosystems to be unbalanced. For example in the case above, the pest Helicoverpa armigera has lost
one of its food sources.

b. Food Safety

High population growth encourages certain parties to increase the availability of sustainable food, one
of which is food crops. To produce large quantities of products in a relatively fast time and have
adequate nutritional content, one of the efforts is to create transgenic plants. In addition to meeting the
needs of the community in terms of quantity and quality, the formation of GMO plants is also carried
out to produce products with unique properties, such as watermelon boxes.

Engineering on genetic material contained in tran organisms