First, genetically engineered foods have only been on the market for under a decade. Certainly, people in America were not dying of starvation prior to 15 years of life before engineered food. If you were referring to the rest of the world... well children still die of starvation every day even though the US produces massive quantities of cheap food.
Secondly, I am a firm believer that we base our quality of living (nationally, worldwide, etc) on how the poorest of our society live. When I say "we" referring to society I include them too.
When you've got families subsisting off the dollar menus of various fast food venues because they can't afford fresh produce, that has to show you there is a serious problem with the way food is subsidized in our country.
And not to mention the effect our subsidies have had on other commodity crop markets around the world. Though I could go into it.