![\"Bill](\"http:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/bill-gates-farming-technology-world-hunger-300x156.jpg\")
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Fifty organizations dedicated to food sovereignty and food justice issues are calling out Bill Gates over his latest claim that technology is the solution to world hunger and food sovereignty.<\/p>\n
In an \u201copen letter\u201d published earlier this month, the groups addressed comments Gates made, during interviews with The New York Times and The Associated Press, about The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 2022 Report.<\/p>\n
The letter\u2019s lead authors, Community Alliance for Global Justice\/AGRA Watch and the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, wrote:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn both articles, you make a number of claims that are inaccurate and need to be challenged. Both pieces admit that the world currently produces enough food to adequately feed all the earth\u2019s inhabitants, yet you continue to fundamentally misdiagnose the problem as relating to low productivity; we do not need to increase production as much as to assure more equitable access to food.\u201d<\/p>\n
The authors also criticized Gates\u2019 claims that we\u2019ve \u201cunderinvested in agricultural innovation\u201d and that the Green Revolution was \u201cone of the greatest things that ever happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gates told The New York Times:<\/p>\n
\u201cHelping farmers has got to be the very top of the climate adaptation agenda. And within that, you have a lot of things like credit for fertilizer, cheap fertilizer, better seeds that we should be very intent on \u2013\u2013 funding those things and setting ambitious goals for.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the authors of the open letter disagreed:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are already many tangible, ongoing proposals and projects that work to boost productivity and food security \u2013\u2013 from biofertilizer and biopesticide manufacturing facilities, to agroecological farmer training programs, to experimentation with new water and soil management techniques, low-input farming systems, and pest-deterring plant species.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also disagreed with Gates\u2019 claim that the Green Revolution was a \u201cresounding success\u201d:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile [the Green Revolution] did play some role in increasing the yields of cereal crops in Mexico, India, and elsewhere from the 1940s to the 1960s, it did very little to reduce the number of hungry people in the world or to ensure equitable and sufficient access to food.\u201d<\/p>\n
The authors reminded Gates that with the Green Revolution came \u201ca host of other problems, from ecological issues like long-term soil degradation to socio-economic ones like increased inequality and indebtedness (which has been a major contributor to the epidemic of farmer suicides in India).\u201d<\/p>\n
They also criticized Gates\u2019 push for genetically modified seeds, stating that \u201cclimate-resilient seeds are already in existence and being developed by farmers and traded through informal seed markets.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are part of creating the very problem you name,\u201d the groups wrote. \u201cThe AGRA (Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa) initiative, which your foundation continues to fund, has also pushed restrictive seed legislation that limits and restricts crop innovation to well-resourced labs and companies.\u201d<\/p>\n
https:\/\/childrenshealthdefense.org\/defender\/bill-gates-farming-technology-food-sovereignty\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fifty organizations dedicated to food sovereignty and food justice issues are calling out Bill Gates over his latest claim that technology is the solution to world hunger and food sovereignty. In an \u201copen letter\u201d published earlier this month, the groups addressed comments Gates made, during interviews with The New York Times and The Associated Press, … <\/p>\n