The poor can be helped by improving the conditions or environment in which they live, lowering the costs of what they consume, and increasing their incomes. In the developing world, if agricultural biotechnology can be directed towards such changes it can benefit the poor. Directing biotechnology requires a clear identification of the poor, where they live, what they consume, how they generate their income, how biotechnology could improve their living conditions, how it could reduce the costs of what they consume, and how it might increase their income. I briefly discuss identifying the poor and their needs, and then concentrate on the potentials of biotechnology.