Sir; I am responding to the letter from Mark Hipshon titled GM Crops Won't Feed the Poor' (The Grocer, February 23). It is disingenuous on the part of critics of biotechnology to keep saying that there is enough food in the world and thus argue against scientific advances such as biotechnology to improve food production. Sure, there are plenty of food grains in the world, but most of them are in the West and much of them fed to animals: seventy per cent of corn produced in the US is fed to livestock. Perhaps we can solve all the hunger in the world by asking everyone to become vegetarians in the West and then just ask Iowa farmers to donate their grains to the developing world. Export of food from developing countries accounts for only a small percentage of the global food trade, and much of it is in high-value tropical commodities that provide badly needed foreign-exchange for these countries. How does one improve access and distribution of food to the rural poor dependent on farming? By improving farm productivity and by enhancing the infrastructure and policies that promote free trade. In South Asia and Africa, where much of the poor in the world live, the large majority of the people are involved in farming. Technologies such as genetically modified crops will help these people not only to produce more food, but also to increase their income. Increased prosperity of the rural sector would clearly help in reducing hunger and in narrowing the inequity between urban and rural people. It is the local production of food and greater income from farm products that can help the rural poor, and biotechnology will help reduce chemical inputs on the farm, cut labor and fuel, lower farming costs, produce more nutritious food, and improve the overall productivity. Can Hipshon offer any alternative sustainable solutions to global hunger? CS Prakash Professor, Plant Molecular Genetics Director, Center for Plant Biotechnology Research, Tuskegee University, Alabama, US {{LETTERS }}