1.'We don't need GM to solve the hunger problem of today'
2."GM is a totally oversold technique"

NOTE: David King is the UK government's former chief scientist, who claimed that Africa's ills are largely down to Western do-gooders who oppose GM in favour of organic food. A number of his claims about what GM crops can achieve have been shown to be entirely bogus.

Item 1 is extracted from a Farmers Guardian report of the recent Science Museum debate involving Prof Bob Watson. Item 2 is the relevant part of The Guardian's piece about the debate.
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1.'We don't need GM to solve the hunger problem of today'
Farmers Guardian, 30 Jan 2009, p.14 

Professor Robert Watson, Defra Chief Scientist, comments: "We don't need GM to solve the hunger problem of today... David King was absolutely wrong. Farmers in Africa can't afford the better seeds, they have no access to fertilisers and sprays and they have severe constraints over irrigation - you don't need GM to solve that." Watson also says that GM won't solve the problem of food waste, and while there may be a role for GM in the future is has been "an oversold technology".
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2."GM is a totally oversold technique"

extract from:
Nearly a billion people go hungry every day -- can GM crops help feed them?
Ian Sample
The Guardian(science blog), 23 Jan 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2009/jan/23/gm-crops-genetically-modified-food-crisis

...Bob Watson spoke last. He began by explaining that today the amount of food available per capita has never been higher, how costs are still low, and yet still around 900m people go to bed hungry every night.

The major problem, said Watson, is not one that GM crops will solve. He stressed the need for good roads to get crops to markets, and simple technologies that will help reduce post-harvest losses in Africa, which currently stand at between 30 and 40%. "GM is a totally oversold technique," he said.

The debate that followed covered some interesting ground, but it seemed easier to identify the problems than the solutions. How can we ensure GM foods are safe when some countries do not have sufficient procedures for testing and evaluating any health issues, let alone the impact of novel crops on the environment? How do you ensure that farmers in the developing world can plant higher-yielding GM crops without becoming dangerously reliant upon a company that has the power to hike prices or withdraw seeds without notice? The problems are recognised, but I'm not sure anyone at the meeting had concrete ideas about how to solve them.

Though GM crops are common in many parts of the world now, they are still absent from the UK and resistance to them is strong in many parts of Europe. Sir
Nearly a billion people go hungry every day -- can GM crops help feed them?

David King, the government's former chief scientist, said last year that Africa's ills are largely down to Western do-gooders who oppose GM in favour of organic food. He argued that organic food is a luxury Africa cannot afford and that modern agricultural technology is needed urgently.

It's striking that the views of King and Watson are so diametrically opposed. If these two have such differing positions, is it any wonder that the public is confused?