There are numerous applications for biotechnologies, and the number of these applications is constantly increasing. Many sectors of agriculture, industry and services use biotechnologies for various purposes:
- to produce substances with special characteristics (for example, biomedicines, additives for foodstuffs, chemical products, and biofuels);
- to improve traditional production processes (through biocatalysis, for example);
- to make research and development into new products easier (innovative medicines, for example);
- to influence the breeding and the propagation of plants and animals;
- to provide services (diagnostic activities, reclamation of polluted areas, for example).
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The complexity and the innovative characteristics of biotechnological applications make it difficult to predict future developments. |
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The most widely-used classification of biotechnology applications includes:
- red biotechnology, relative to medicine and healthcare;
- green biotechnology, the applications of which are used in the agricultural and zootechnical sectors and in the food chain;
- white biotechnology (or grey biotechnology), relative to industrial biotechnological processes, applications for the protection of the environment and the production of alternative energy.
Sometimes the term blue biotechnology is used for marine and aquatic applications.
Like all classifications based on criteria that are not entirely objective and precise, the above one contains approximation elements and is, in some ways, ambiguous. For example, it is anything but univocal, to say that:
- veterinary applications can be classified as red biotechnology, as they are also relevant to medicine and healthcare, or green biotechnology, since they are used in the zootechnical field;
- the use of biotechnologies for the production of foodstuffs (for man or animals) can be classified as green biotechnology, as they are connected with the food chain, or white biotechnology, since these are industrial applications.
Alternative classifications could be used, as some people have attempted to do. However, the classification described is the most widely used and allows us to interpret the market data available on the application of biotechnologies.