This in turn, has created not only more food, but employment on the banana grove as yields increase. It plays a key role in the diet and income of some 500 million people worldwide. Research is underway on cassava where biotechnology increases the plant s natural resistance to disease, pests and poor growing conditions. Without successful agriculture, these people will have neither employment nor the resources they need for a better life. Farming the land is the engine of progress in less developed countries.
World hunger is a complex issue, one for which there is no single answer.
While biotechnology is not the only solution, it can be a valuable tool in the struggle to feed a hungry world. More than 2,900 eminent scientists, including three Nobel laureates, have signed a statement attesting to the health and environmental safety of agrcultural biotechnology. They call for genetically engineered crops to be extended to people who need it most hungry people in developing countries. Today, there are some 800 million people who do not have access to sufficient food to meet their needs. Malnutrition plays a significant role in half of the nearly 12 million deaths each year of children under five in developing countries.