Biotech Knowledge Centre

"President Bush will be promoting biotech in the context of its potential to address world hunger," Reuters quotes the U.S. official as saying, who declined to be identified.

Genetically modified crops can yield more than conventional crops, offering the potential to feed more people. The United Nations estimates 800 million people go to bed hungry and says the world is behind a target to halve world hunger by 2015.

According to the story, The United States has been promoting biotechnology heavily in recent months in Europe where resistance to genetically modified crops remains strong.

At a recent seminar hosted by the U.S. embassy in Florence, Reuters says U.S. diplomats argued strongly in favour of biotechnology, saying that it was well regulated in the United States and reduced the need for chemical inputs such as insecticides.

The story states that many European consumers are worried that the new technology, already widespread in soya-based products, could pose a threat to health and the environment.

Jacques Diouf, director-general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, said on Thursday genetically modified crops could be helpful in the war on hunger as the world's population expanded, provided proper controls were in place.

Referring to genetically modified organisms (GMOs), Diouf told Reuters: "With the world's population expected to reach nine billion, naturally using more productive varieties like GMO becomes one of the solutions."