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Groups around the U.S. Join Haitian Farmers in Protesting "Donation" of Monsanto Seeds
,----[ Quote ]
| AGRA Watch in Seattle plans a march today
| which will end outside the Gates Foundation
| office. AGRA stands for A Green Revolution in
| Africa, which is a multinational corporation-
| driven, GMO-driven program now being launched
| in Africa. The Gates Foundation has been a key
| promoter of AGRA. The group says, âThe dumping
| of toxic seeds in Haiti is the latest in a
| series of unsustainable solutions that
| Monsanto has pushed on farmers around the
| world. If the Gates Foundation wants to
| support a truly sustainable agricultural
| system in Africa, they must divorce themselves
| from Monsanto. Haitian farmers and African
| farmers have said NO! to corporate control of
| their food systems. The Gates Foundation and
| AGRA must say no to Monsanto.â
`----
http://thewip.net/talk/2010/06/groups_around_the_us_join_hait.html
Standing Up for Food Sovereignty
,----[ Quote ]
| AGRA Watch formed in 2008 to challenge the
| Gates Foundation's participation in the
| problematic Alliance for a Green Revolution in
| Africa, and to support sustainable, agro-
| ecological alternatives already practiced in
| Africa.
|
| [...]
|
| The Gates Foundations, like other mega-
| philanthropies, use their financial power to
| push policies that they have decided are
| 'needed.' In this case, Gates has decided that
| GMOs are the solution for African agriculture.
| In 2009, the Gates Foundation gave US$5.4
| million to the Donald Danforth Plant Science
| Center, as part of its Grand Challenges in
| Global Health initiative.[10] This funding
| went to the creation and management of the
| BioSafety Resource Network (BRN), and to
| research under the Gates' Grand Challenges #9
| Project, which seeks to develop nutritionally
| 'enhanced' crop varieties of cassava, banana,
| sorghum and rice for subsistence farmers in
| the Global South. The Danforth Center states
| that the 'Results of this research will help
| to reduce the burden of malnutrition and ...
| will support the creation and management of a
| resource network that will help African
| scientists incorporate biotech advances into
| subsistence farming.'[11]
|
| Among the key funders of The Danforth Center
| is the Monsanto Fund, the 'philanthropic' arm
| of the Monsanto Company.[12] One of the Fund's
| main goals is 'Nutritional Improvement through
| Agriculture: Working to implement sustainable
| agricultural improvements through education
| and research. Focus areas include field
| techniques, education in the areas of
| nutrition and vitamin deficiency and reducing
| the impact of pest and virus on subsistence
| crops', and to do this philanthropic work in
| areas where the company has important
| interests. This means that, like most
| philanthropic organisations set up by
| corporations, their business interests are
| barely distinguishable from their charitable
| ones. Monsanto - like other agri-corporations
| - has re-branded genetic engineering with a
| softer touch. Namely, they have painted
| themselves as concerned with the welfare of
| the world's poor. In truth, these corporations
| are concerned with social responsibility only
| to the extent that it allows them to maintain
| good public relations and their bottom-line.
| At a deeper level, corporate agendas and
| philanthropic agendas are linked to US policy,
| and are thereby granted legitimacy and
| enormous influence over global political
| systems.
|
| [...]
|
| Given scientific data that discount the claims
| of genetic engineering, why would the
| 'beneficent' structures of food aid and
| philanthropy remain tied to claims of GE's
| usefulness in the global South, particularly
| in Africa? According to numerous academics,
| policy observers, and activists, these
| structures are not about hunger. They are
| about capitalism and philanthro-capitalism:
| The opening of markets, the spending of wealth
| through tax-free foundations in order to
| surround wealthy principals with the aura of
| altruism, the expropriation of valuable
| resources at the lowest cost, the perpetuation
| of the myth that technology solves all
| problems, even social ones, and the
| intentional obfuscation of the exploitative
| roles of corporations.
`----
http://allafrica.com/stories/201006101099.html
Let them eat phones
,----[ ]
| Unless the situation is extremely well
| researched this is a very risky investment.
| 'Leapfrogging' may only be possible when there
| are already lots of cell phones being used.
`----
http://gateskeepers.civiblog.org/blog/_archives/2010/6/11/4550753.html
Recent:
Bill Gates reveals support for GMO eg
,----[ Quote ]
| As it has come to dominate the agenda for
| reshaping African agriculture over the years,
| the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has
| been very careful not to associate itself too
| closely with patent-protected biotechnology
| as a panacea for African farmers.
|
| True, the foundation named 25-year Monsanto
| veteran Rob Horsch to the position of "senior
| program officer, focusing on improving crop
| yields in sub-Saharan Africa."
|
| Yet its flagship program for African ag, the
| Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
| (AGRA), explicitly distances itself from
| GMOs. "AGRA does not fund the development of
| GMOs," the organization's Web site states.
|
| But AGRA -- co-funded by the Rockefeller
| Foundation, proud sponsor of the original
| Green Revolution -- is just part of what
| Gates does around African ag. What precisely
| is the foundation getting up to over there?
| Is it pushing GMOs on African smallholder
| farms?
`----
http://www.grist.org/article/2009-10-21-bill-gates-reveals-support-for-gmo-ag
Gates backs GM crops: tech must help farmers, feed rising population
,----[ Quote ]
| Giving his full support to the use of
| genetic engineering in agriculture,
| Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill
| Gates today said if the world continued to
| produce food with existing technologies it
| would not be able to feed its increasing
| population.
|
| In an interview with Shekhar Gupta,
| Editor-in-Chief of The Indian Express, for
| NDTVâs Walk The Talk programme, Gates, who
| is on a visit to India for work related to
| his charitable foundation, said the world
| needed newer crops with increased
| productivity, better adaptability to
| changing climatic conditions and the ones
| that use less of insecticides. And these,
| he said, could only be made through
| innovations in agricultural biotechnology
| sector.
|
| âTechnology, properly applied, is the
| reason, if you like, why nine billion
| people can live on this planet without
| destroying it,â said Gates who toured
| remote villages in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
| during his visit.
`----
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Gates-backs-GM-crops--tech-must-help-farmers--feed-rising-population/619502
Gates backs GM crops: tech must help farmers, feed rising population
,----[ Quote ]
| Giving his full support to the use of
| genetic engineering in agriculture,
| Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill
| Gates today said if the world continued to
| produce food with existing technologies it
| would not be able to feed its increasing
| population.
|
| In an interview with Shekhar Gupta,
| Editor-in-Chief of The Indian Express, for
| NDTVâs Walk The Talk programme, Gates, who
| is on a visit to India for work related to
| his charitable foundation, said the world
| needed newer crops with increased
| productivity, better adaptability to
| changing climatic conditions and the ones
| that use less of insecticides. And these,
| he said, could only be made through
| innovations in agricultural biotechnology
| sector.
|
| âTechnology, properly applied, is the
| reason, if you like, why nine billion
| people can live on this planet without
| destroying it,â said Gates who toured
| remote villages in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
| during his visit.
`----
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Gates-backs-GM-crops--tech-must-help-farmers--feed-rising-population/619502
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