The first area of bio-tech industry examined in part 2 of the reading was the engineering of medical compounds from plants, plants which would be subsequently marketed and promoted for large-scale growth to meet the demand for use of those compounds. Concerns of the collateral effects of such a plan are identified and subsequently alleviated, such as concerns of cross-pollination with food crops, etc. It also suggested some benefits of adopting this practice of "growing medicine", in that it could potentially lower drug prices (based on availability), and also, linking medicine to agriculture can allow more accessible means of transmitting medicines to the Third World.
The reading shifts into the bio-engineering of animal life as well. It looks at the use of manipulating genetics for both pleasure as well as for profit. For pleasure, we may see the cloning of loved pets, reducing strains of irritating bugs (and saving helpful bugs), etc; in terms of profit, genetic engineering opens the potential for faster-growing food animals (Salmon) to ones that taste better with leaner meat portions. The question of whether to do the same for trees is also posed, meaning we could both bring back majestic American trees of the past, and also revert to strong genetically modified trees for lumber industry purposes, and leave existing forests intact.
The last portion of this section consist of a review of various arguments against GM crops, and the author's well-supported counter-arguments. Bailey is using scientific knowledge along with understanding of world need for GM crops (along with conventional history of modern agriculture) to argue this point, which i found persuasive enough to agree with.
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