A group of more than a hundred Nobel Prize laureates are urging the environmental campaign group Greenpeace to drop its opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMO) in agriculture. 

110 Nobel Laureates from the sciences, medicine, and even a few economists and writers are throwing their support behind GMOs as a way to solve world hunger issues.  Their open letter to Greenpeace, the United Nations, and governments around the world notes that global production of food, feed, and fiber will need to double by 2050 in order to meet the demands of the growing global population.

"Organizations opposed to modern plant breeding, with Greenpeace at their lead, have repeatedly denied these facts and opposed biotechnological innovations in agriculture.  They have misrepresented their risks, benefits, and impacts, and supported the criminal destruction of approved field trials and research projects," the letter reads.

They're particularly upset that Greenpeace is opposing "Golden Rice", a grain with boosted Vitamin A content that say has the potential to "reduce or eliminate much of the death and disease caused by a vitamin A deficiency".  The UN World Health Organization says that as many as 250 million people around the world suffer from vitamin A deficiency, including 40 percent of children under the age of five years old in the developing world.

"We urge Greenpeace and its supporters to re-examine the experience of farmers and consumers worldwide with crops and foods improved through biotechnology, recognize the findings of authoritative scientific bodies and regulatory agencies, and abandon their campaign against 'GMOs' in general and Golden Rice in particular," says the Nobel laureates, who ask: "How many poor people in the world must die before we consider this a 'crime against humanity'?"

Greenpeace says Golden Rice is a failed experiment that has "not been proven to actually address Vitamin A Deficiency", despite 20 years of research.  "Rather than invest in this overpriced public relations exercise, we need to address malnutrition through a more diverse diet, equitable access to food and eco-agriculture," says Greenpeace Southeast Asia campaigner Wilhelmina Pelegrina.