Moreover, genetic modification has always taken place and the modern form is only different in degree and may even be more precise and safer than in the past, when processes were somewhat hit and miss, as, for example, in the development of Asian rice. Every crop grown on a so-called 'organic' plot has long been genetically modified, and the idea that 'organic farming' is more 'natural' than other forms of farming is, frankly speaking, philosophical nonsense. All forms of farming are 'unnatural' and have different strengths and weaknesses, and most will form part of the complex agricultural jigsaw of production that will be needed in the future. You are quite right to stress the role of political ecology in generating current problems of starvation, and I can go along with much of what you say about this. The maldistribution of land and resources is, of course, a related, but essentially different, issue, a confusion sadly compounded by the very poor Christian Aid Report on the topic.
Humans only survive in the long term by biotechnology, adaptation, and movement.
To cut down our options in the field of biotechnology would be sheer madness. That is why I am excited by, not fearful of, the current prospects for further human skills in biotechnology, precisely because these skills will help humans to continue to outpace change, as we have just about managed to do so in the past. By corollary, it is also why I am angry over the current opposition to 'GM' in the UK, because I do not want the future of my children and of the world population to be compromised by such myopic and foolish attempts to curb human adaptability. The very 'precautionary principle', so beloved of environmentalists, demands that we develop biotech crops and foods as efficiently and as quickly as we can. I also understand, however, that, with globalisation, many people feel a decrease in empowerment, and I believe that much 'Green' activism has, in reality, very little to do with the environment, but with 'taking control of our lives'.