>One man's ridiculous is another child's ability to see. You will not be
>forced to use this product. There are countless very very poor and starving
>people on this planet that can not wait for the next ice-age to start
hunting
>and gathering.

IT doesn't have to be one or the other ( genetic engineering or starving)
because in fact they are 2 sides of the same coin They reinforce each over.
i met peoples in India who radically take their survival needs seriously and
don't expect short term "miracle " to save them. They had to work for 10
years to be able to be self sustaining by  growing  their food so they could
open an alternative school . that school is welcoming all the childs refused
by normal school for missbehavior . there parents were still  hunter
gatherers 50 years ago, before the indians from the plains brought the
Improvement ( rice and the plow) up in those mountains. The result is that
now they starve , streams are drying out and children are confused.
Now because of their work children teach their parents about real self
sustaining farming, show them how to sow seeds on untilled ground, how to
reclaimed the desertified aeras . They had to go thru the children because
the parents got hooked in the miracle of the plow and could not listen.
In 50 years they learned to  eat rice and  to work in brick factory
 selling out the once supportive earth)
genetically improved rice will require more fertilisers and pesticides . how
can they afford that? What kind of solution is it ?
Improving rice can only further reinforce the dependancy on it.
jean-claude