A recent human development report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) concluded that the widespread fears of biotech food in developed countries are actually promoting hunger in the Third World. This week, on-line webzine time.com interviewed Kate Raworth, a UNDP economist and co-author of the report. Raworth says in no uncertain terms that “technology is one of the ways to meet that goal” of solving world hunger. Quoting Nigeria’s minister of agricultural and rural development, Raworth told time.com: “We don’t want to be denied this technology because of a misguided notion that we don’t understand the dangers of the future consequences… The potential is to develop crops that have better drought tolerance, greater pest resistance, higher yields and greater nutritional content – and all of those characteristics are important in improving the food security of poor rural communities.”
