Biotech not the answer to hunger, says UK charity
13 May 1999 (See Nature Volume 399 page 99)
[LONDON]
The British charity Christian Aid has challenged biotechnology companies to prove that genetically modified food is the answer to global hunger. In a report, Selling Suicide: Farming, False Promises and Genetic Modification in the Developing World, published in London last week, the charity claims that better distribution is a more appropriate solution to hunger than improvements in technology.
"The world is not short of food," the report says. "Brazil is the third largest food exporter in the world, and yet 100,000 children die from hunger each year." Similarly, it says that during the 1984 famine in Ethiopia, "some of the best farming land was being used to grow animal feed for export to Europe".
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