Poor-Washing, the Gates Foundation & the "Green Revolution" in Africa

[nosmokes]

I know to some it's heresy to criticise Mr Gates and his philanthropic endeavors but there are times when his foundation is misguided in it's quest to fix the ills of rampant capitalism w/ yet more capitalism. His foundation's teaming w/ monsanto and other bio/ag and industrial ag corps to bring that technology to developing countries when organic and bio-intensive technologies are what is needed is a case in point.
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original-blackagendareport

Poor-Washing, the Gates Foundation & the "Green Revolution" in Africa
by BAR managing Editor Bruce Dixon

Genetically altered crops will rescue Africa from endemic shortfalls in food production, claim corporate foundations that have announced a $150 million "gift" to spark a "Green Revolution" in agriculture on the continent. Of course, U.S.-based agribusiness holds the patents to these wondercrops, and can exercise their proprietary "rights" at will. Are corporate foundations really out to feed the hungry, or are they hypocritical Trojan Horses on a mission to hijack the world's food supply - to create the most complete and ultimate state of dependency.

"Poor-washing" is the common public relations tactic of concealing bitterly unfair and predatory trade policies that create and deepen hunger and poverty with clouds of hypocritical noise about feeding the hungry and alleviating poverty. It's hard to imagine a better case of media poor-washing than the hype around the recently announced $150 million "gifts" of the Gates and Rockerfeller Foundations to the cause of reforming African agriculture, feeding that continent's impoverished millions and sparking an African "Green Revolution"

For ADM, Cargill, Monsanto and other agribusiness giants farming as humans have practiced it the last ten thousand years is a big problem. The problem is that when farmers plant and harvest crops, setting a little aside for next year's seed, people eat, but corporations don't get paid. That problem has been so thoroughly solved in US food production that chemical fertilizers and pesticides create a biological dead zone of hundreds of square miles in the Gulf of Mexico where the Mississippi, draining much of the continent's richest farmland, empties into it. U.S. law requires the registration all crop varieties, and makes it extraordinarily difficult for farmers to save and plant their own seed year to year without paying royalties to corporations who "own" the genetic code of those crops.
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complete article including links to other sources here

[Deja Q]

1. Corporations? 'Gift'? Since when? They consider gift a 4 letter word for

'loan'.

Or 'investment'.

It's not about the people.

Oh, it may look like philanthropy now but if nobody else hasn't noticed a historical pattern by now, call me Loretta or at least get me a date so I can have better things to do than theorize hyperbole.




Edit: One word replacement for clarification, combined with this 14 word paragraph explaining it.

[gravity]

2. The problem is that they can't currently grow enough crops in Africa with their current methods

Current agricultural methods can't support the population of Africa, so we can either let part of the population die, or have more intensive agriculture to produce enough food for everyone. The choice is pretty obvious.

[Deja Q]

3. Agreed. Any cynicism aside, there is some good being done.

Question is, if there are more Indian programmers than "qualified" American ones, why does Microsoft of all companies care about this endeavor? Their corporate history is replete with decisions that benefit them first, everyone second - if ever. Sorry to thrust in more cynicism, but it doesn't add up. At least given existing criteria... or perhaps they want to pull the rug out of India in 25 years' time, citing cost concerns?

[gravity]

4. It's Bill Gates's plan, not microsoft's business strategy

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is paying for it, not microsoft.

[nosmokes]

7. The solution to Africa's agricultural woes certainly do not lie in making

the same mistakes we did. How is it going to help Africa by putting their farmers in a never ending cycle of debt by locking them into technology that does nothing but deplete the soil's natural fertility and lock the farmer into using synthetics and practices that will contribute to global warming? Especially when it's a fact that organic bio-intensive agriculture will grow more than enough food w/o the pollution and produce more nutritious food to boot.

[Skidmore]

5. Gates is cultivating himself a market.

You can't sell computers and software to people who can't find their next meal.

Bill Gates, Sam Walton, and Rupert Murdoch--the Excess of Evil. Killing decency one dollar at a time.

[gravity]

6. He is feeding the poor and saving lives

I wouldn't call that evil.

[nosmokes]

8. Props to the Gate's Foundation for the good stuff it does.

I don't mean to imply that gates is evil or that the foundation doesn't also do a whole lot of good work. but, and it's a big BUT, that doesn't change the fact there are some misguided efforts going on it's name.