During the 68th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting held on June 24-29, 2018,
Nobel Laureate Sir Richard J. Roberts delivered an Agora Talk about
genetically modified organisms (GMOs) emphasizing the benefits of GMOs and
how they can provide nutritious food to developing countries across the
globe.

On June 26, 2018, Roberts, who is leading the initiative "Laureates Letter
Supporting Precision Agriculture (GMOs)," a campaign of 133 Nobel Laureates
supporting GMOs, delivered an impassioned speech to a room full of people.
He said, "There are 800 million hungry people in the world, for them, food
is like medicine!" In fact, he continues, taking a look at today's crops and
vegetables, "pretty much everything we eat today has already been
genetically modified compared to the original plants."

The 1993 Nobel Laureate also discussed the serious consequences of the
backlash that GMOs have received. Using Golden Rice as an example, he said
that deliberately ignoring the science that underpins GMOs is foolish and
dangerous. Millions of children have died or suffered developmental
impairment because of a lack of Vitamin A in their diet. Golden Rice could
reverse this, but has become a target of the Green parties because it is a
GMO. He also asked, How many more children must die before this is
considered a crime against humanity?

[www.lindau-nobel.org]