11-09-09
GE News List

From: Laurel Hopwood, Chair
Sierra Club Genetic Engineering Action Team

To: Bill Gates
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
PO Box 23350
Seattle, WA 98102

Dear Mr. Gates

Sierra Club, the world's largest grassroots conservation organization, has
concerns about your statement at the World Food Prize forum last month. You claimed that environmentalists opposed to genetic engineering of farm crops are against anything that increases yields.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Genetic engineering - the artificial splicing of genes into a completely
different species - does not increase crop yields, according to a recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists. One means to increase crop yields which does not pose risks to the environment is marker-assisted selection (MAS), a high-tech method of speeding up the process of conventional plant breeding.