50 Groups Target Bill Gates on Farming and Technology: ‘You Are Part of Creating the Very Problem You Name’

Fifty organizations dedicated to food sovereignty and food justice issues signed an open letter calling out Bill Gates over his latest claim that technology is the solution to world hunger and food sovereignty and asking the media to do a better job of covering the issue.

Fifty organizations dedicated to food sovereignty and food justice issues are calling out Bill Gates over his latest claim that technology is the solution to world hunger and food sovereignty.

The letter’s lead authors, Community Alliance for Global Justice/AGRA Watch and the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, wrote:

“In both articles, you make a number of claims that are inaccurate and need to be challenged. Both pieces admit that the world currently produces enough food to adequately feed all the earth’s inhabitants, yet you continue to fundamentally misdiagnose the problem as relating to low productivity; we do not need to increase production as much as to assure more equitable access to food.”

The authors also criticized Gates’ claims that we’ve “underinvested in agricultural innovation” and that the Green Revolution was “one of the greatest things that ever happened.”

“Helping farmers has got to be the very top of the climate adaptation agenda. And within that, you have a lot of things like credit for fertilizer, cheap fertilizer, better seeds that we should be very intent on –– funding those things and setting ambitious goals for.”

“There are already many tangible, ongoing proposals and projects that work to boost productivity and food security –– from biofertilizer and biopesticide manufacturing facilities, to agroecological farmer training programs, to experimentation with new water and soil management techniques, low-input farming systems, and pest-deterring plant species.”

They also disagreed with Gates’ claim that the Green Revolution was a “resounding success”:

“While [the Green Revolution] did play some role in increasing the yields of cereal crops in Mexico, India, and elsewhere from the 1940s to the 1960s, it did very little to reduce the number of hungry people in the world or to ensure equitable and sufficient access to food.”

The authors reminded Gates that with the Green Revolution came “a host of other problems, from ecological issues like long-term soil degradation to socio-economic ones like increased inequality and indebtedness (which has been a major contributor to the epidemic of farmer suicides in India).”

They also criticized Gates’ push for genetically modified seeds, stating that “climate-resilient seeds are already in existence and being developed by farmers and traded through informal seed markets.”

“You are part of creating the very problem you name,” the groups wrote. “The AGRA (Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa) initiative, which your foundation continues to fund, has also pushed restrictive seed legislation that limits and restricts crop innovation to well-resourced labs and companies.”

These initiatives don’t increase widespread innovation, but rather contribute to the privatization and consolidation of corporate monopolies over seed development and seed markets, they said.

The groups challenged Gates to “step back and learn from those on the ground,” and called on the media to consider how they cover Gates and his vision for the future of food.

They wrote, “we invite high profile news outlets to be more cautious about lending credibility to one wealthy white man’s flawed assumptions, hubris, and ignorance, at the expense of people and communities who are living and adapting to these realities as we speak.”

Russell Brand sided against Gates and with the authors of the letter, telling viewers:

“It’s a beautiful letter. It’s brilliantly articulate and the reason we want to present it to you today is because it demonstrates that criticizing Bill Gates doesn’t make you a conspiracy theorist and it demonstrates too that Bill Gates’ actions and influence are nefarious and harmful.”

Brand mocked Gates, splicing his YouTube podcast with snippets of the billionaire at his foundation’s recent Goalkeepers 2030 Conference:

“Ah, Bill Gates, he’s the answer to all the world’s problems and anyone who criticizes him is a conspiracy theorist or a considered academic concerned about him colonizing and monopolizing the world’s resources.”

But this “is not a conspiracy theory,” Brand said. “These are harmful policies designed to centralize power and control food, and people are answering back from a position of authority, integrity and expertise.”

“What you are doing is gaslighting –– presenting practical, ongoing, farmer-led solutions as somehow fanciful or ridiculous, while presenting your own preferred approaches as pragmatic.”

Brand echoed the food sovereignty group’s argument that there are “already measures in place that can be controlled and implemented by the communities themselves and don’t require the centralization of power, the patenting of seeds and crops, the technologicalization of the process of agriculture –– all, by the way –– by a fellow who seems to be buying up farmland at the moment –– by coincidence!”

“Gates likes to look at the world as simple data. What I offer you is this question: Is Bill Gates trying to help? Or is Bill Gates simply suggesting that the solution to all of these problems is to give Bill Gates more power?”

I buy my meat direct from a farmer - I see the animal ‘on the hoof’. For those that care about the source of their meat, this is going to be the way to go as the lab junk starts filling the meat cases at the store.

BTW, the lab stuff out now (Beyond Meat, Impossible Burgers) don’t seem to sell so well - most often what I see that is on ‘special’ just before their ‘sell by’ date. It appears Beyond Meat, in particular, is not doing that well as a business.

giving out loans to people who can’t pay them off by the government is completely different than an individual giving deserving hand picked people the downpayment they need to buy the home they may have already been living in for years.

Most long term renters actually pay far more to rent than they would to buy the home they live in. They just can’t save up the downpayment. If your someone like Gates and you really want to help people, help AMERICANS! They are the ones who bought your products and made you rich to being with and we need plenty of help RIGHT HERE IN AMERICA

Three things to eliminate & the obesity epidemic would be much reduced:

Sugar

Processed Food

Vegetable Seed Oils

Then we need to get rid of the TV, computers, phones--so people will move. We need to get rid of supersized, large portions. Doesn't all this sound like gun control?

No, people need to take personal responsibility for eating to dam* much (I know, I love to) and sitting around too much.

You are right--processed food is bad. I think all children, as a requirement, should be taught to cook, fish, hunt and garden as part of their education.

Totally agree on “personal responsibility” and not advocating government “control” at all - this is not like gun control. People need honest, truthful information. Then they make their own decisions .... if they want to be obese and unhealthy, have at it. If you want to be lean and healthy, you would have the info to attain that goal. It’s actually not hard, IF you have the proper information.

Unfortunately, AHA, ADA, Big Food/Ag, even Big Pharma, are opposed to people knowing the truth. All you have to do is look at the ads & the organizations/government recommendations ... the food pyramid has been upside down for decades. People are led astray, trust these sources, etc. Same as the COVID shots .... those who speak the truth are demonized, docs who know better & help patients reverse T2D & get off insulin have their licenses threatened, etc. Same old, same old.

So how does ‘good’ info work? Once I got the proper info, I reversed pre-diabetes, got rid of inflammation that was causing arthritis, heartburn, etc. & lost 65 pounds. NO sugar, NO vegetable oils & NO processed food. Meat (pastured when I can get it), some veggies that I cooked myself. Use mostly ghee, some tallow, will be rendering lard in the next week or so from pastured pork. Rarely use olive/avocado oil - if for some reason I really need ‘oil’, these are fruit oils, not vegetable seed - the issue is that they are often ‘cut’ with soybean so source is critical. So did I “exercise” to lean out? No. I have since added short (to muscle failure) high intensity exercise 2-3 times a week, about 15 minutes a session to build muscle and strength. Dr. Ben Bocchicchio and/or Dr. Al Sears are good examples of ‘exercise’ that I follow.

People need honest, truthful information.

I think you give people too much credit that ignorance is the cause, most everyone knows what food is bad (internet. celebs, info is everywhere), fattening and unhealthy--they don't care, it's what they like.

That's what it's all about, right? Building a better consumer. A disposable society. Most everyone will call you a liberal for thinking corporations can and do, do harm. Corporations are people, they can buy your elections and now they can control your money. That makes us slaves. I agree with you

I reversed pre-diabetes, got rid of inflammation that was causing arthritis, heartburn, etc. & lost 65 pounds

You had a motivator and you were open to information. Do you think in the world of Lizzo twerking and https://www.dailywire.com/news/sports-illustrated-features-obese-model-amanda-prestigiacomo . No, they want a better consumer and we dance along. They will not create a better product and we're a disposable society and with socialized medicine it will be even more so. We are the product.

We need our independence back, we need to know the pride and joy of taking care of ourselves and not being cattle to be herded and harvested. The art of being independent and self sufficient has been lost. We need a strong relationship with the land. We are weak and dependent.

Nothing changes until that does. Reliance on God needs to come back. We've got to quit seeking acceptance and stop coveting our neighbors--that drives our consumer destruction and destroys strong families. The change we need is in the mirror and with God.

That's my opinion of things but I agree with much you have written. We have to awaken motivation. It's Rip Van Winkle.

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