Gates Foundation Gives $56 Million to Support AGRA’s PASS

The Gates Foundation gave another $56 million dollars to AGRA yesterday to support  AGRA’s Programme for Africa ‘s Seed Systems (PASS), which is focused on creating disease-resistant and higher-yielding seeds. PASS’s plans include creating 40 more private seed companies in addition to the 60 that were already created in the first stage of the program. They hope this will achieve yearly production of 200,000 metric tons of “improved seed” that will then be passed on to farmers . PASS also plans on educating more scientists on how to breed these seeds. The African Centre for Biosafety, and the Oakland Institute are particularly concerned that AGRA’s seed program is laying the foundation for the introduction of GM crops in Africa. Read more about AGRA’s newest plans here:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201202280809.html

Bill Gates’ support of GM crops is wrong approach for Africa

AGRA Watch helped make this Op-Ed possible – One of our African colleagues, Glenn Ashton, became so incensed at Bill Gates’ continuing obtuseness (eg, his recent annual letter) that he worked with AW to produce an Op Ed which we were able to get placed in the Seattle Times. This is probably the first occasion in which the Times has published reasoned and sustained opposition to what Gates is doing in agriculture. That it comes from the pen of an African makes these words even more powerful!

Read the piece here:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2017612869_guest28ashton.html

Food Sovereignty, not just Food Security

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) has released a document highlighting the merits of a Food Sovereignty focus when dealing with world hunger problems. It notes that economic policies developed by industrial agriculture solely focused on food security have, in fact, exacerbated the hunger problem through degradation of  land resources and destruction of biodiversity and pest resilience. Instead, the paper argues, there should be a focus on local, indigenous farmers, and less unnecessary trading of food internationally.  To learn more about the benefits of a global Food Sovereignty movement, and learn the Six Principles of Food Sovereignty, click here:

http://www.africanbiodiversity.org/system/files/images/AFSA%20Document.pdf

Jill Richardson chronicles her stay with AW partner G-BIACK

Patented GMO Seeds a Major threat to Food Sovereignty

Patented GMO seeds, which are being pushed by The Gates Foundation’s AGRA subsidiary, are a major assault on Africa’s seed sovereignty. They run against notions of sustainability since farmers are required to to buy them every year, and  they lead to a loss of genetic diversity because these seed systems are used in monocultures. In addition, the patenting of seeds means huge profits for Monsanto and other US biotechnology corporations as well as signifying a threat to agricultural democracy and food sovereignty.

Gates Foundation Newsletter Sparks Controversy

Is Philanthropy the Enemy of Justice?

Philanthropists pushing GM crops in developing countries claim to be providing food security, but many of the local peoples these projects are intended to help want nothing to do with GM crops. Unfortunately, philanthropists are the ones with the money, so they are the ones who make the decisions. In this sense, philanthropy does not necessarily mean justice.

Read more here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/27/philanthropy-enemy-of-justice

Gates defends focus on High-Tech Agriculture

We have been asked a million times why he comes down on the side of hi-tech–here’s his answer. AW has analyzed his fallacies.

Read more here:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/24/gates-defends-focus-on-high-tech-agriculture/#ixzz1kRaOeDKi

Land-grabbing continues to threaten local peoples and food security

Partner organization The Oakland Institute published a report in 2009 detailing what they describe as a “land rush,” or the fervent rush of private investors involved in land-grabbing in Africa. Investors from all over the world are lured to Africa by the promise of cheap and productive land with which they can grow food for export. All of this comes at the expense of the local people, many of which have been relocated to new villages with little to no resources available with which to grow food.

Read Oakland Institute’s report here:

http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/great-land-grab-rush-world%E2%80%99s-farmland-threatens-food-security-poor

A recent example of this behavior can be found in Ethiopia, where the government is currently leasing out 3.6 million hectares to foreign investors, and many indigenous people are being removed from their homes. While the Ethiopian government denies “forcing” anyone from their homes because the land being leased is “uninhabited,” investigations done by US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) show that the current residents of the land never had a formal title, which allows the government to bypass laws that would protect these populations from relocation.

Read more on this here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16590416