ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the broad emerging trends, consequences, and policy issues surrounding the development of agricultural biotechnology in the public and private sectors. It outlines public perceptions of the new biotechnologies, certain scientific developments in biotechnology, the roles of governments, universities, and industries in its development, and the broad technical, social, and economic issues and impacts associated with its emergence. Despite the broad public concerns, and the optimistic predictions of scientists, the government, and industry, most of the products, processes, and impacts of the new biotechnologies, remain promises for the future. A promising development in animal biotechnology is the production, in cattle and swine, of human hemoglobin, the oxygen carrying component of blood. In the United States, universities have been major contributors to the development of biotechnology. The impacts and consequences of biotechnology on science, the food and fiber-system, and society are just emerging. Biotechnology and molecular biology continue and extend the basic methods and approaches of modern science.
