GM Golden Rice is no response to world hunger

Developing a new variety of rice would not tackle the key cause of vitamin A deficiency. The real causes of hunger and malnutrition are poverty, poor food distribution, lack of land and resources to grow food, and a failure of political will. Experience with 'green revolution' crop varieties suggests that their introduction often results in the use of expensive external inputs - fertilisers and chemical pesticides, without which the crops fail. So for poor people who have land, vitamin A rice might not be of any benefit at all even if companies like Astra-Zeneca give Third World farmers free access to the grain.