I appeal to readers to give generously during ActionAid Week. This year the theme of the charity's fundraising week is 'sowing the seeds of change', with the focus on something that is important to us all - good wholesome food and the right to grow it, to buy it and to eat it.

More than 500 million children go to bed hungry every night. But the world already produces one and a half times the amount of food it needs, so growing more won't necessarily feed hungry families.

As I discovered when I visited an ActionAid project in Uganda, the solution is to ensure everyone gets a fair share of what is already being produced. One way this can be done is to tackle the threat that genetic engineering and patenting may pose to the developing world.

Poor farmers are concerned that genetic engineering and patenting will increase the problem of hunger rather than help solve it. They fear that genetically engineered sterile seeds will stop the traditional practice of saving and exchanging seeds.

To help ActionAid please sign up to our Seeds of Change pledge. You could also support a house-to-house collection, buy raffle tickets, keep a collection box at home or take part in a fundraising event, such as a sponsored picnic. To find out more phone ActionAid on 01460 238000.

Stephen Fry (actor and writer),

Action Aid,

Hamlyn House,

Macdonald Road, Archway,

London, N19 5PG.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.