Advances in agricultural biotechnology are being desperately promoted in the name of eradicating hunger and poverty. The misguided belief that the biotechnological silver bullet can "solve" hunger, malnutrition and poverty has prompted the industry and the development community, policy-makers,and economists to chant the mantra of "harnessing technology to address specific problems facing poor people". And in the bargain, it is forgotten that what the world's 840 million hungry need is just food, which is abundantly available.