This survey shows that U.S. consumers are not swayed by the current anti-technology hysteria sweeping elsewhere, and that they strongly believe that responsible application of technology can advance food and nutritional security. U.S. agriculture is the envy of the world and has made outstanding progress in the past century because of judicious application of technology. Biotechnology represents a frontier advance in agricultural science, and it has far-reaching potential in advancing global food production in an environmentally sustainable manner, continuing to prove Thomas Malthus wrong. We should not be lulled into complacency. While the world population will continue to grow in the developing countries where food is already a problem, biotechnology represents a powerful tool that we can employ in concert with many other traditional approaches in increasing food production in the face of diminishing land and water resources.
World hunger is a complex issue, one for which there is no one answer.
Yet while biotechnology may not be the only solution, it can be a valuable tool in the struggle to feed a hungry world. Encyclopedia Britannica online edition. Advancing Altruism in Africa. William H. Danforth, chairman, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. 2000. , January 9.