Sir, – The suggestion that GM technology offers the potential to feed the world and act as a silver bullet in the fight against world hunger (“Ploughing a lonely furrow for GM crops”, Business +Innovation, August 6th) fundamentally misrepresents the actual causes of global hunger and may provide a distraction from the real issues that must be addressed if we are to solve it.
Global hunger is not a result of lack of food production. Hunger and malnutrition are a result of the ways food and wealth are distributed, how the benefits from increasing food production are shared and the quality of food which people eat. Adopting a purely “technology can fix it” approach does not address the root causes of hunger, including lack of access to land, water, energy, affordable credit, local markets and infrastructures.
GM technology has been pioneered by a relatively small number of private companies and it is these companies, along with large-scale industrial farmers, who stand to reap most of the benefits. To properly tackle global hunger we must invest greater resources in agriculture and rural development, ensure traditional land users rights are respected, particularly those of women farmers who produce 70 per cent of the world’s food, and commit ourselves to fairer rules governing international trade and regulations on corporations.
Proponents of GM technology should not rely on the “feed the world” narrative in relation to these technologies, as to do so distorts the focus on the real problems and the real solutions that are needed in the fight against hunger. – Yours, etc,