Farmers and civil society organizations around the world are outraged by the recent discovery of further connections between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and agribusiness titan Monsanto. Last week, a financial website published the Gates Foundation’s investment portfolio, including 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock with an estimated worth of $23.1 million purchased in the second quarter of 2010. This marks a substantial increase from its previous holdings, valued at just over $360,000.
“The Foundation’s direct investment in Monsanto is problematic on two primary levels,” said Dr. Phil Bereano, University of Washington Professor Emeritus and recognized expert on genetic engineering, in the press release. “First, Monsanto has a history of blatant disregard for the interests and well-being of small farmers around the world, as well as an appalling environmental track record. The strong connections to Monsanto cast serious doubt on the Foundation’s heavy funding of agricultural development in Africa and purported goal of alleviating poverty and hunger among small-scale farmers. Second, this investment represents an enormous conflict of interests.”
Monsanto has already negatively impacted agriculture in African countries. For example, in South Africa in 2009, Monsanto’s genetically modified maize failed to produce kernels and hundreds of farmers were devastated. According to Mariam Mayet, environmental attorney and director of the Africa Centre for Biosafety in Johannesburg, some farmers suffered up to an 80% crop failure. While Monsanto compensated the large-scale farmers to whom it directly sold the faulty product, it gave nothing to the small-scale farmers to whom it had handed out free sachets of seeds. “When the economic power of Gates is coupled with the irresponsibility of Monsanto, the outlook for African smallholders is not very promising,” said Mayet. Monsanto’s aggressive patenting practices have also monopolized control over seed in ways that deny farmers control over their own harvest, going so far as to sue—and bankrupt—farmers for “patent infringement.”
News of the Foundation’s recent Monsanto investment has confirmed the misgivings of many farmers and sustainable agriculture advocates in Africa, among them the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition, who commented, “We have long suspected that the founders of AGRA—the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—had a long and more intimate affair with Monsanto.” Indeed, according to Travis English, researcher with AGRA Watch, “The Foundation’s ownership of Monsanto stock is emblematic of a deeper, more long-standing involvement with the corporation, particularly in Africa.” In 2008, AGRA Watch, a project of the Seattle-based organization Community Alliance for Global Justice, uncovered many linkages between the Foundation’s grantees and Monsanto. For example, some grantees (in particular about 70% of grantees in Kenya) of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)—considered by the Foundation to be its “African face”—work directly with Monsanto on agricultural development projects. Other prominent links include high-level Foundation staff members who were once senior officials for Monsanto, such as Rob Horsch, formerly Monsanto Vice President of International Development Partnerships and current Senior Program Officer of the Gates Agricultural Development Program.
Transnational corporations like Monsanto have been key collaborators with the Foundation and AGRA’s grantees in promoting the spread of industrial agriculture on the continent. This model of production relies on expensive inputs such as chemical fertilizers, genetically modified seeds, and herbicides. Though this package represents enticing market development opportunities for the private sector, many civil society organizations contend it will lead to further displacement of farmers from the land, an actual increase in hunger, and migration to already swollen cities unable to provide employment opportunities. In the words of a representative from the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition, “AGRA is poison for our farming systems and livelihoods. Under the philanthropic banner of greening agriculture, AGRA will eventually eat away what little is left of sustainable small-scale farming in Africa.”
A 2008 report initiated by the World Bank and the UN, the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), promotes alternative solutions to the problems of hunger and poverty that emphasize their social and economic roots. The IAASTD concluded that small-scale agroecological farming is more suitable for the third world than the industrial agricultural model favored by Gates and Monsanto. In a summary of the key findings of IAASTD, the Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) emphasizes the report’s warning that “continued reliance on simplistic technological fixes—including transgenic crops—will not reduce persistent hunger and poverty and could exacerbate environmental problems and worsen social inequity.” Furthermore, PANNA explains, “The Assessment’s 21 key findings suggest that small-scale agroecological farming may offer one of the best means to feed the hungry while protecting the planet.”
The Gates Foundation has been challenged in the past for its questionable investments; in 2007, the L.A. Times exposed the Foundation for investing in its own grantees and for its “holdings in many companies that have failed tests of social responsibility because of environmental lapses, employment discrimination, disregard for worker rights, or unethical practices.” The Times chastised the Foundation for what it called “blind-eye investing,” with at least 41% of its assets invested in “companies that countered the foundation’s charitable goals or socially-concerned philosophy.”
Although the Foundation announced it would reassess its practices, it decided to retain them. As reported by the L.A. Times, chief executive of the Foundation Patty Stonesifer defended their investments, stating, “It would be naïve…to think that changing the foundation’s investment policy could stop the human suffering blamed on the practices of companies in which it invests billions of dollars.” This decision is in direct contradiction to the Foundation’s official “Investment Philosophy”, which, according to its website, “defined areas in which the endowment will not invest, such as companies whose profit model is centrally tied to corporate activity that [Bill and Melinda] find egregious. This is why the endowment does not invest in tobacco stocks.”
More recently, the Foundation has come under fire in its own hometown. This week, 250 Seattle residents sent postcards expressing their concern that the Foundation’s approach to agricultural development, rather than reducing hunger as pledged, would instead “increase farmer debt, enrich agribusiness corporations like Monsanto and Syngenta, degrade the environment, and dispossess small farmers.” In addition to demanding that the Foundation instead fund “socially and ecologically appropriate practices determined locally by African farmers and scientists” and support African food sovereignty, they urged the Foundation to cut all ties to Monsanto and the biotechnology industry.
AGRA Watch, a program of Seattle-based Community Alliance for Global Justice, supports African initiatives and programs that foster farmers’ self-determination and food sovereignty. AGRA Watch also supports public engagement in fighting genetic engineering and exploitative agricultural policies, and demands transparency and accountability on the part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and AGRA.
Source: AGRA Watch
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “ChrissyOne” for the heads up.]
And dirt farmer gets it right!
@buster,
There are multiple problems here. Roundup ready crops are herbicide (roundup) resistant. There are many reports of roundup toxicity and longer residual time in the soil than originally claimed by monsanto.
As for “insect restant” plants, again they contain a pesticide in the plant that was derived from a bacteria that organic farmers had developed to protect their crops. The differnce is that that pesticide was expressed inside the gut of the catapiller that ate a leave with a spore on it. GMO crops have that peticide in all parts of the plant including those parts we eat. two problems 1: there is not sufficient research about the long term consequence of eating that pesticidal protein contained in every part of the plant. 2: not enough evidence that that pesticide protien won;t have impact over time on other insects and small critters that are in the soil.
Lastly,
both crops are failing in the real world.
lors of problems!
@First 2010, Then 2012…
C1 is just suffering from Palin Derangement Syndrome!… In some areas, C1 wouldn’t know a fact/truth if it backslapped her upside her head… but she’s good to have a debate with… a fiery prognosticator of half truths with a little wit thrown in… nit wit that is, especially when she’s on meds, although she’ll need to be careful when she climbs off her high horse and she shouldn’t operate heavy machinery, like a computer… or thinking.
See, C1 will tout this…
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2010/08/25/day-after-abc-highlights-sarah-palins-political-losing-streak-her-ca
But this causes her gag reflexes, even just thinking about it…
http://www.slate.com/id/2265060/
Regarding Palin, “Twenty of the candidates she’s endorsed have won. Ten have lost. That’s a pretty good record.”
And how is ignorant quitter Obama’s track record again?…
So you see, First 2010… Chrissy can’t help herself.
Goodnight Chrissy, hugs… Chrisytu or C2
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@ dirt farmer
Appreciate your comments!
Thanks for correcting me about the patent issue. I suppose the right thing would have been to say that corporations have more of a fiduciary obligation to protect their patents, in that protecting the patents protects shareholder value. In any case, a company that does not defend their patents in court will lose them to challenges by other companies.
It is again worth noting, though, that all companies engaged in ag research have patent portfolios and must protect them with the same vigour (no pun intended!) as Monsanto.
I think that the statement that GMO crops are not doing what they’re supposed to do is quite a bit too broad. For example, in my area of the world, glyphosate-tolerant canola does a very good job at what it is supposed to do. Often, different combinations of herbicides can be used to control weed species. Or, after harvest spraying something like 2,4D will kill all weeds over winter, leaving a clean field for planting in the spring. Yes, you have to use more chemical, but you also get higher yields. Research is also ongoing on other types of herbicides.
I’m not sure where the reports about longer residual time for Roundup come from. To my knowledge, Roundup is a contact chemical that must contact the foliage of the plant for it to have effect. Again, to my knowledge, there is no soil residual for Roundup; it becomes inactive as soon as it touches soil (or even dust in the air).
In any case, I think it has been proven that there are lower levels of pesticide present in the insect-resistant GMO plants that produce them than is present on plants that have been manually sprayed with pesticide in a conventional manner. Of course, in the GMO plants you have expression of that recombinant protein throughout the plant body, but that doesn’t bother me if it is at a much lower concentration than is harmful to humans. So I’m pretty much with Buster in that I would rather eat the GMO material with lower concentrations of pesticide than the conventional material with a higher concentration of pesticide. Of course there are other benefits to insect-resistant plants like less chemical input costs, and less danger to farmers and other wildlife around the crop (because you don’t have to spray it manually).
–mAc
Between Monsanto, the World Bank and Microsoft its amazing anything still exists!
MW = areas, as in, of expertise. ala John Hodgeman.
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I’m still waiting on the answer to my question about Palin. Since the visionaries above are so mind-numbingly easy to bait I didn’t expect much.
WHAT is it that you admire about her? Without bringing up or comparing to Obama, please, as I have said many times I don’t support him either. Though it is a good dodging technique.
Please write something lengthy a clever. I’ll even give you all night.
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Ta!
-c
Come on, I’m serious. I love to have your 6th grade reading-level posts detracting me. I could not ask for better opponents.
A Monsanto executive once said that the company aspired to be just like Microsoft and, through transgenic plants, own the “operating system” in agriculture through. Looks like Billy boy likes the idea.
Chaining the patent process with genetic material associated with staple food, clothing, and building material (trees) and energy production (corn,trees, et. al.) is a bigger mistake than Constantine tying the civil and religious authorities together.
Also, anyone that believes that gm food products have been tested well doesn’t understand the problem. As I understand it, changes in nutritional content of foodstuffs often do not show up immediately, but only over several generations. The changes in native Hawaiians and Samoans health, or in native Americans in general are all WELL KNOWN examples.
As a side note, my family, all of them, some of which were 5 years old when the practice began, spread DDT, by hand, several times per crop, onto cotton. All of them, with one exception, lived to be over 70, with many (the non-smoking non-drinking variety) living into their 80’s and 90’s. The exception died as a result of an allergic reaction to penicillin, which was then new gonna fix all that ails ya technology, given during a bout with pneumonia at the age of 49.
Bravo Chrissy One!
A few points for thought.
There’s no evidence that genetically engineered foods are NOT harmful over the LONG TERM, say 2 or 3 human generations. Those scenarios cannot be tested in labs.
Agribusiness, as far as I understand it, tends to plant mono-crops… Vast acreage of the SAME species. This not a good thing overall and over time.
Use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers not only is bad for the food, but wreaks havoc with water runoff, ground water and lilting of microorganisms in the top soil. Killing of topsoil leads to erosion. No top soil, means no, or reduced farming is possible. Erosion and depletion of arable land is a huge problem worldwide.
Chemical pesticide and fertilizer runoff and ground water pollution is another “hidden benefit” of mono and chemical agriculture.
There is evidence of harm of chemical and agribusiness farming since it intensified after WWII. Elevated illness and cancer rates, food allergies, “cheap food” and elevated rates of obesity (many more factors at play there, of course.
As only a few mentioned, over-population is the NUMBER ONE problem overall, worldwide.
A hard and unfortunate fact of life: if there are too many animals living in an area which cannot be sustained by local food sources, some of those animals will die. People are animals. Unfortunately, we aren’t exactly the smartest critters around, since we have a penchant for not only destroying and killing everything around us, but also destroying our own and the habitat we share with other species.
Drastically culling the human herd wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Maybe we should be thanking Monsanto for their tireless work toward that end.
My God so many of you are so ignorant… you actually think all these people are working against one another…
There’s no excuse to understand how the world really works, with all this info freely available over the Internet for you to learn and to contemplate, individually, instead of follow the herd with Democrat versus Republican, or UN versus USA, etc. etc. etc.
@chrissyOne
Did you know that organic food kills. Every instance where it has been consumed, the person died, or will die. Organic food is always associated with death, be it short term or long term. So it poses an equal risk as does genetically modified crops. Except, some people have their lives extended by the genetically modified crops because they don’t die from that one other well known threat – starvation.
My guess is you are opposed to using DDT to kill deadly mosquitoes which are literally killing millions of Africans.
Finally, I will give you several reasons I like Sarah Palin.
1. She doesn’t hate America
2. She doesn’t hate the US Consitution
3. She believes in the quaint, almost lost idea of freedom, free enterprise, and personal responsibility as opposed to the more fashionable current notion that the Federal Government should own or control all industry and should dictate how individuals live their lives.
4. She believes that we should use the enormous resources that we have been blessed with, like oil and coal and timber. And we should do this as responsibly as we can, as she did.
5. She believes that America should defend itself against foreign threats and that this is the major responsibility assigned it by the Constitution. She does not believe that America, operating under it’s Consitution, is the major threat to world peace.
6. She believes in God and has the humility this brings to not believe that she is God, as many politically ambitious people do.
7. She thinks the Federal and State governments should not spend beyond their means, passing on enormous debts to future generations and setting the stage for an economic calamity, as is being done now.
8. She does not associate and befriend known terrorists who have bombed buildings with the intent to kill, and now lament that they did not bomb enough US buildings or destroy more.
9. She cares about a living baby in the womb and does not believe it right to kill that baby, before it is born, or after it is born in botched abortion attempt, which is completely at odds with many today who view living humans in the womb as less important than seeds, or turtles, or bugs.
10. She has the strength of conviction to stand up to ridicule from people who have done nothing, and she does it politely.
11. She has fought and succeeded in eliminating corruption in her own party, while her opponents protect the corrupt in their midst, because they themselves are corrupt.
12. She has a sense of humor
13. She sticks to her convictions.
14. She loves America as it was constituted and works to protect and defend it.
I can’t think of a single major leader in the other party with these
virtues. Now you tell me who you admire in the Democrat Party, their accomplishments, and why you respect them.
@ dirt farmer
I should have been more specific in my comments. I am only talking about the insect resistance plants as that is my area of expertise. I have spent 20 years of my life researching how this insecticidal protein works at the cellular and subcellular levels. I was part of the team that solved its atomic structure.
Some clarification points.
1) GMO crops do not express the protein in all parts of the plant. Mainly the newest parts…
2) There is an incredible body of research on the fate of the toxin, more than ANY chemical pesticide in history. The big problem farmers have with this toxin is that it is TOO specific. They were prefer a more general killer, This is why it does minimal disruption of the ecosystem in comparison to ‘kill everything in its path’ chemicals.
This is due to three reasons
a) It needs a specific cell receptor to bind to in order to do its job….humans do not have this (nor fish, nor most living things)
b) Our gut proteases chew it up to bits.
c) It doesn’t like the acidic environment (pH=1) of our guts, caterpillars have basic gut environments (pH=11).
I can talk at length about how it works and why it is safe. the biochemistry, genetics and electrophysiology behind it all. It is well researched believe me.
@doc….sorry. From a resistance management (and scientific) point if view, your infection and fitness explanation makes no sense at all.
C1 is correct in that I promote the technology and the safety. There is too much nonsense generated by the ‘frankenfood’ smokescreens produced by Greenpeace. It is amazing how people ignore science based facts and go on unproven notions.
Trangenic plants are indeed the wave of the future….and if you are not aware of it yet, gene therapy is also the wave of the future. I cannot wait for the “franken-people’ terminology to emerge. Genomic-based, personalized medicine is also coming to a theatre near you once DNA sequencing gets to the $1000/person stage.
What is needed here is responsible government and responsible regulations to properly administer this technology.
This is the future folks…you read it here first.
“500,000 shares of Monsanto stock”
Monsanto: The evil corporation in your refrigerator
Genetically Modified Seeds: Women in India take on Monsanto
Monsanto GM-corn harvest fails massively in South Africa
Monsanto’s Bullying Tactics in Argentina & Latin America
The Tentacles of Globalism Descend into Southeast Asia
Terminator Gene – Monsanto … EVIL.
You talk a lot about what you think she believes, but how do you know that? Almost every one of your points describes some ideal that you think she adheres to, but the only evidence of this is the character that she’s created in the media and on the pageant runway. Let’s go through it –
1. (this is what you start with?) You assume that every other elected official does? How in fact does she ‘not hate America’? Isn’t this just a cowardly straw-man? Come on. Anyone can wave a flag and say this, but it’s irrelevant, there’s no meat to it. Next.
2. See #1. Now show me evidence of those who you think DO hate the Constitution. How about those who would amend it to ensure that large classes of citizens are locked out of freedoms that others enjoy? Does Sarah support or oppose such efforts?
3. How Quaint, as Scotty might say. Yes, that Conservative fantasy of the Perfect Past of Freedom, that glowy cozy Thomas Kinkade painting that we all remember from childhood, but in fact never really existed. Everyone had a big car and ate a 20 pound turkey every night. And they were all white and there was no crime. It’s nice dream, but honey, it never was. Not for anybody. Certainly not anyone I’ve ever met. The party she works for has expanded government further in that last decade than in any time before her, yet she’s got you by that balls, still buying into that Reagan Myth that sells so many flags. Here’s a news flash – No president has ever meaningfully lowered your taxes.
4. Blessed with? Sweetheart… there is no invisible man in the sky. We didn’t get any gift from anyone. The earth has created a system that can be thrown out of balance if we try hard enough. There isn’t a big cave full of gold that Baby Jeebee left for you. I agree that we should use this responsibly. I disagree that Sarah Palin, who’s policy consists of the chant ‘Drill Baby, Drill’ is the person to decide what’s responsible. But those slogans are fun for idiots to chant, I guess. What do we do when businesses are deregulated to the point of causing catastrophic havoc… Oh wait, that already happened.
5. Ask the residents of Iraq how much peace we’ve inflicted on them. Oh wait, you’re talking about peace for *americans*. GOT it. Yeah, it’s super peaceful as long as you’re not a brown foreigner.
6. I don’t believe in fairy tales, and I vote. I didn’t hear about anyone who ‘thinks they are God’, except for David Koresh, and maybe that African witch-doctor that Palin used to speak in tongues with. If you want to live in theocracy, maybe you should become a Muslim. They’d love you.
7. Yet she supported the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war, which doubled the national debt. She still supports attacking Iran, even though she doesn’t have a clue what the implications, both politically and financially, truly are. Interesting.
8. And she also hasn’t kicked any puppies today. Maybe she deserves a cookie.
9. Which people? The one’s she talked you into hating? She held up her ‘retard baby’ (her words) at 11 o’clock at night as a political prop. This was more hideous to me than anything Michael Jackson ever did. It’s so easy to make tools out of pro-lifers I wish I had the knack for it. EVERY SPERM IS SACRED! Tell that to your daughter if she ever gets raped. (or was she asking for it?)
10. Again… I’m asking what SHE has done, as opposed to these nothing-doers of which you speak. You have so far not told me a single thing she’s done. Except be folksy and pretty and love the precious little babies.
11. I still see Eric Cantor standing there. I still see her Palling Around with John Beohner and Mitch McConell. You mean that cop she fired for being her ex-brother in law?
12. I guess if you’re a simple kind of folksy Rill American she just cracks you up. I’ll give her that. Point Palin.
13. And quits her job to do it. Now THAT’S conviction. Point Palin.
14. We’ve already covered this in points 1 and 2. Minus 2 points.
Well kent, you really convinced me. And the funny thing is, this is exactly the same amount of useful information that I’ve ever gotten out of any Palin supporter. With a promo like that, she should be Emperor by now.
I’m ready to sign on with the Palin Doctrine!!!
-c
@C1….what about the fact that Palin is an expert on Canada. Like Russia, she can see it from her front door.
@Kent…please do everyone a favour here and go play in traffic. Do the gene pool a favour.
@ Buster
In that case, I’m an expert on Canada as well. And from what I’ve seen, people there can’t bloody stand her.
…but of course they are WAY too polite to say so.
@Chrissy One
I note that you did not answer my question and give me your Political Heroes. You spend a lot of time attacking Sarah Palin. Tell me who you admire. Let’s learn how your heroes survive a similar exam. Now – name them. And you can start with Obama, who you voted for.
@Buster – obviously you have been eating the lead paint in your home. Amazingly, in your case, it has elevated your intelligence. You are almost on a peer with Joe Biden and other single celled organisms.
@C1 Au contraire ma chere! We love Palin here. She is a constant source of amusement for us and it goes to show that, ANYONE can aspire to higher office regardless of their overall intelligence and lack of general awareness (all easily overcome by being….folksy).
Keep Palin in the running.
Keep Ballmer as CEO.
You can’t make this shit up….
@ Kent
That’s because my heroes are people who have the good sense to stay out of politics.
I’ve stated many times my reasoning for voting for Obama, and as long as Sarah Palin is alive I stand by them. You don’t listen
@ Buster
Whatever. Could you just send me some poutine? ;P
@Kent (pronounced Stoo-pid).
Let us remember the original article on transgenics and Monsanto (although why this is in MDN, I have no idea).
Ever notice that most conservatives in the US give you wide berth?????
What’s it like never having thought that you could be wrong about, well, anything?
Do your knuckles scape along the ground when you walk?
Maybe I was wrong about the effects of someone imbibing trangenic plant material over a long periods of time.
“(although why this is in MDN, I have no idea)”
Maybe you’d better ask the idiot who submitted it them.. (oh wait…)
“Do your knuckles scape along the ground when you walk?”
Only because he can’t afford healthcare.