IMPACT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY ON THE ECONOMICS OF LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION

The article deals with economic consequences of biotechnology in animal production. Biotechniques are currently undergoing a process of rapid scientific innovation. Some, for example embryo transfer are already in an advanced stage of practical implementation. Genetic engeneering, though still in it's pre-implementation phase, promises unprecedented progress in performance of livestock production, both in terms of higher productivity and of introducing new types of products for pharmaceutical and industrial use. The economic consequences of such innovations will in principle not be different from those of traditional progress in breeding and animal husbandery: declining production costs and opening of new market outlets. Early innovators gain pioneer profits and finally, consumers and/or tax payers gain, depending on the flexibility of price and policy response. In addition, the unrestricted introduction of biotechnologies might also have some specific consequences. The higher speed of progress may result in socio-economic and political frictions due to the need to adjust production systems, marketing and the environmental policy framework more rapidly. Moreover there might be undesirable distributional consequences, namely an uneven access of farm types and farms signs to the new technology as well as an increased dependency between agriculture and industry. Finally, there are some specific risks and fundamental questions of ethics involved in the new biotechnologies. The second part of the article reports about a technology assessment study on rBST where some of these issues are being discussed in more detail.