You're contradicting yourself here. Earlier you implied that without genetically engineered foodstuffs people in developing nations would starve. That belief is common, but obviously entirely wrong. You're now shifting it to developing nations aren't using these products because their exports (which implies a surplus of foods) might be hurt. The site referenced shows where all their data is from, if you find things difficult to believe. You should of course scrutinize all information. Something we all know, but sometimes forget when information confirms our own personal biases. In 1996 Africa's production was already capable of providing in excess of 2300 calories per person per day. It was a matter of distribution. Africa's problems are primarily social. You have to remember that they have something like 1/6th of the world's population but about 60% of the world's arable land.

As for your letter, let's consider appeals to authority. In the early 20th century academia and intellectuals in the US were were full-on in favor of state enforced eugenics - and this was a topic they were actively involved in and studying. Hitler actually sited the American 'progress' on this issue as an inspiration. Were they right, because lots of smart people said they were? Or go back to leaded fuel. DuPont and other companies involved that catastrophe had long lists of scientists, experts, and professionals constantly testifying to its safety and necessity. In the past cigarette companies would regularly run ads showing doctors smoking and testifying to the safety of them. Suffice to say, when a company is trying to create an appeal to authority to convey a message - I think we should be particularly critical as it's the weakest form of argument that exists, even if it even qualifies as an argument.

But anyhow, back to your letter - Huffington Post as usual was quite confused. The quote "GMOs are extensively tested and subjected to a higher degree of regulatory review than any other crops" is not in the letter that was signed. Here's the actual letter [1]. But the more interesting part is that that statement is of course completely false. People are constantly surprised (see: this thread for examples) that genetically engineered foodstuffs have had no meaningful oversight in the US, though some in this thread think this is a new thing. There is no premarket testing required, special safety inspections, or anything of the sort. Basically if you have the licenses to sell a tomato, you can genetically engineer a tomato and sell it without any additional requirements. People probably just assume that in the nation of a gazillion regulations, it's a given that genetic engineering would be tightly controlled, regulated, and tested. Welcome to regulatory capture.

Beyond that there are several other misleading statements in the letter, in its current state, as well but this is already getting a bit too long. This is just a topic I find incredibly interesting from a sort of social perspective. The interaction between government and corporate influences, how media influences people, and all of these other incredibly interesting issues are all emphasized so well in this one topic - with a wide array of different nations/governments to consider. Just really great stuff.

[1] - http://supportprecisionagriculture.org/nobel-laureate-gmo-le...