Monsanto

RECENT POSTS

Gates Foundation partners with Brits to boost food production

In case you missed it, food has played a big part in the uprising now rocking and re-shaping the Middle East.

Flickr, World Bank

Planting in Kenya

That’s not why the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has decided to put up $70 million in partnership with the UK’s lead aid agency (aka DFID, Department for International Development), which is donating $32 million, to support agricultural research aimed at improving food production in Africa and Asia.

But it’s worth noting that food insecurity leads to political instability, which leads to economic instability … and so on.

If you still can’t figure out why you should care about people in Africa going hungry, consider that you probably also used to think Egyptian politics didn’t really affect you. They do, and they will. Pay attention.

Continue reading

Gates Foundation responds re Monsanto investments

Flickr, by sarniebill1

The Guardian recently published a post on its new online Global Development site (funded by the Gates Foundation) in which their environmental writer demanded that the Seattle mega-philanthropy explain why it had recently upped its investments in Monsanto.

Monsanto is big on genetically modified seeds and crops. The Gates Foundation is trying to spur an agricultural revolution in Africa. Some see this as an unholy alliance to spread genetically modified organisms across the planet (lots of GMO crops are already all over the U.S., as it turns out).

Not surprisingly, many people commented on this article.

But I wanted to highlight one response posted the other day from Mark Suzman, advocacy director for global development at the Gates Foundation.

Below is Mark’s statement printed in entirety: Continue reading