Listen to this segment | entire program

In his annual newsletter for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, billionaire Bill Gates took a public position in favor of Genetically Modified Organisms or GMOs, as a solution for world hunger. His explanation for world hunger used the following logic: “The problem is that …farms…don’t produce enough food for a family to live on.” GMOs have been used as a magic bullet for global hunger for years now, and the world’s leading GMO producing giant, Monsanto, has been leading the charge to promote GMOs despite reluctance on the part of many nations, and general public distaste for the technology. Six nations in the European Union have banned GMOs, and Monsanto recently gave up on its efforts to sell insect resistant genetically modified maize to France. Increasingly cited by activists online is a 2010 scientific paper published by the International Journal of Biological Sciences which was based on a study that finds a clear link between the consumption of GMO corn, and organ failure in rats.

Meanwhile a two-year old Obama appointment to the Food and Drug Administration is being challenged once more by an online petition. Michael Taylor was a Vice President at Monsanto and currently serves as Senior Consultant to the government’s leading food safety agency. And, in New York today, the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association will confront Monsanto in a federal court in a land mark case against the GMO giant. The organization represents over 300,000 farmers and seed sellers around the country, seeking protection from the contamination of their crops by GMOs. This month, activists on the Hawaiian island of Maui, staged an anti-Monsanto protest. The Occupy Maui protesters set up an encampment along the Pi’ilani Highway in Kihei. They are protesting the impact of GMOs on small farmers, and the resulting over use of herbicides.

One approach that anti-GMO activists have taken is to insist on labeling GMO foods. The state of Washington is currently considering bills to require GMO labeling. A new campaign called simply “Just Label It!” has gathered more than half a million signatures demanding that the FDA require labeling. Ninety three percent of people polled in a recent ABC News poll said they would like the federal government to require GMO labeling. Fifty other nations worldwide, including China, have agreed to label GMO foods.

GUEST: Jeffrey Smith, Executive Director, Institute for Responsible Technology, and Bestselling Author, of Genetic Roulette and Seeds of Deception

Visit www.responsibletechnology.org, www.nongmoproject.org, and www.justlabelit.org, for more information.