Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation wield enormous power over food systems. How are they using it? African groups, researchers and sustainable food experts around the world are raising concerns about the foundation's push for chemical-intensive, high-input industrial agriculture in Africa. In this presentation, Stacy Malkan, managing editor of U.S. Right to Know, describes recent research, critiques and resources on this topic. USRTK is an investigative research group focused on promoting transparency for public health. Learn more at www.usrtk.org

1. Stacy Malkan, U.S. Right to Know, April 2022
Bill Gates and the Future of Food

2. Bill Gates has enormous power over food systems;
He is the largest owner of farmland in the United States
“My investment group chose
to do this. It is not connected
to climate.”
Bill Gates
Sources
https://www.motherjones.com/food/2021/05/bill-melinda-
gates-farmland-wealth-cascade-young-farmers-priced-out/
https://landreport.com/2021/01/bill-gates-americas-top-
farmland-owner/

3. Gates Foundation is the leading private donor to agricultural development in the Global South, with
>$6 billion in donations, most of it focused on “transforming agriculture” in Africa
Agricultural transformation is defined as a process by which farmers shift from highly diversified, subsistence-oriented production towards more specialized production oriented towards the market or
other systems of exchange, involving a greater reliance on input and output delivery systems and increased integration of agriculture with other sectors of the domestic and international economies.
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/nov/04/bill-melinda-gates-foundation-grants-usa-uk-africa
GRAIN research report update 2021: https://grain.org/e/6690

4. How the Gates Foundation funds agricultural development
Several groups have analyzed the foundation’s agricultural development funding. The following themes emerge from that research.
Funding researchers and groups in the North, not farmers in Africa. A June 2021 analysis of 1,130 Gates Foundation grants for agriculture found the grants are “heavily skewed to
technologies developed by research centers and corporations in the North for poor farmers in the South, completely ignoring the knowledge, technologies and biodiversity that these
farmers already possess.” Many of the grants were given to “groups that lobby on behalf of industrial farming and undermine alternatives.”
Supporting industrial agriculture: As many as 85% of Gates Foundation-funded agricultural research projects for Africa “were limited to supporting industrial agriculture and/or
increasing its efficiency via targeted approaches” and just 3% included elements of agroecological redesign, according to a 2020 report by IPES-Food. The foundation “looks for quick,
tangible returns on investment, and thus favors targeted, technological solutions.”
Influencing global research agenda: The largest recipient of Gates agricultural grants is CGIAR, the world’s largest global agricultural research network. Most of the research is
focused on patentable technologies. In a July 2020 letter, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems raised concerns about Gates Foundation’s involvement in a
“coercive” process to centralize control of the CGIAR research with a centralized board and new agenda setting powers. The reforms on the table “risk exacerbating power imbalances in
global agricultural development.”
Expanding markets for commercial seeds and fertilizer: The second largest single recipient of Gates grant funding for agriculture is the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
(AGRA). AGRA’s primary focus is increasing farmers’ access to commercial seeds and fertilizers — a so-called “green revolution” technology package of commercial seeds and
agrichemicals that is further supported by $1 billion per year in subsidies from African governments. Multiple reports show these interventions have failed to improve food security - and
may be making the situation worse.
Removing barriers to agribusiness expansion: The Gates Foundation is among the five top donors of the World Bank’s Enabling the Business of Agriculture program that guides
policymaking for pro-business reforms in the agriculture sector. The Oakland Institute and GRAIN research group have produced several reports about efforts by the World Bank and its
funders to strengthen private property and intellectual property rights, and promote large-scale land acquisitions that benefit private actors.
“Many critics say the Gates Foundation's
agricultural development strategies help
corporations more than farmers and
communities in Africa.”
https://usrtk.org/our-investigations/critiques-of-gates-foundation/

5. What’s holding back investment in agroecological research in Africa?
International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, 2020 report
https://www.ipes-food.org/_img/upload/files/Money%20Flows_Full%20report.pdf
The Gates Foundation “looks for
quick, tangible returns on
investment, and thus favors
targeted, technological solutions.”
International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems

6. Findings of 2020 Tufts analysis
on Africa’s “green revolution”
• Low productivity increases (29%)
• No evidence AGRA is increasing incomes for small
farmers or women.
• Many climate-resilient, nutritious crops displaced by
maize and other subsidized commodity crops
• Worsening food security
• Hunger increased 30% in the AGRA years
“It’s a failing model, failing
results; it’s time to move on.”
Timothy Wise, Tufts Global Development and
Environment Institute
Sources: https://sites.tufts.edu/gdae/files/2020/07/20-01_Wise_FailureToYield.pdf
https://www.rosalux.de/en/publication/id/42635

7. No response from Gates Foundation

9. Ginkgo Bioworks, a Gates-backed start-up that makes “custom
organisms,” uses its “cell programming” technology to genetically
engineer flavors and scents into commercial strains of engineered
yeast and bacteria to create “natural” ingredients, including vitamins,
amino acids, enzymes and flavors for ultra-processed foods.
According to its investor presentation, Ginkgo plans to create up to
20,000 engineered “cell programs” (it now has five) for food products
and many other uses.
Axios reports that the company plans to charge customers to use its
“biological platform” like Amazon charges for its data center, and will
take royalties like apps in the Apple Store. Ginkgo’s customers, the
investor pitch makes clear, are not consumers or farmers, but rather the
world’s largest chemical, food and pharmaceutical companies.
https://usrtk.org/bill-gates-food-tracker/radical-menu/

11. Web: www.usrtk.org Twitter: @USRighttoKnow Newsletter: usrtk.org/sign-up
LEARN MORE - AND PLEASE SHARE!
Critiques of the Gates Foundation’s Agricultural Interventions in Africa
https://usrtk.org/bill-gates-food-tracker/gates-foundation-agriculture-project-in-africa-flunks-review/
Bill Gates Radical Menu for Food Systems: Ultra-Processed Foods, Patents, Monocrops
https://usrtk.org/bill-gates-food-tracker/radical-menu/
The Long Food Movement: Transforming Food Systems by 2025
https://www.etcgroup.org/content/long-food-movement