Advances in insect biotechnology for human welfare

Biotechnology is the latest scientific breakthrough in the history of agriculture. Yet despite the promise of developing new tools for pest and disease control, transgenic organisms have encountered a mixed reception by the lay and scientific public alike. Yields are unable to keep pace with rising costs resulting in a decline in traditional farming. Switching to a new organic growing paradigm is occurring in Korea and the United States today. These new approaches ignore traditional tools that were responsible for the increased yields that support the current affluence and allowed us to protect crops while buying time to find more ecologically‐friendly methods. The perception that we understand crop diseases and pests is false and those making this assumption risk destabilizing global food production. There are new pests and diseases that are very difficult to control without these traditional non‐organic methods. Invasive species continue to arrive at high rates adding to the burden of farming. Global climate change is already causing changes in the pest and disease complexes and is forcing the entomologist and plant pathologist to make drastic changes to adjust to them.