Wednesday, September 24, 2014

For Immediate Release: GATES FOUNDATION INVESTS IN MONSANTO

For Immediate Release: GATES FOUNDATION INVESTS IN MONSANTO

Aug 25th, 2010 | By | Category: Agra Watch Blog Posts, Events, Food Justice Blog Posts, News
[Please see fact sheet, background research and post-card text on Media Resources page of website here]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 25th, 2010
Contact:
Travis English, AGRA Watch
(206) 335-4405
Brenda Biddle, The Evergreen State College & AGRA Watch
(360) 878-7833
http://www.seattleglobaljustice.org/agra-watch

GATES FOUNDATION INVESTS IN MONSANTO
Both will profit at expense of small-scale African farmers

Seattle, WA – Farmers and civil society organizations around the world are outraged by the recent discovery of further connections between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and agribusiness titan Monsanto. Last week, a financial website published the Gates Foundation’s investment portfolio, including 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock with an estimated worth of $23.1 million purchased in the second quarter of 2010 (see the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission). This marks a substantial increase from its previous holdings, valued at just over $360,000 (see the Foundation’s 2008 990 Form).
“The Foundation’s direct investment in Monsanto is problematic on two primary levels,” said Dr. Phil Bereano, University of Washington Professor Emeritus and recognized expert on genetic engineering. “First, Monsanto has a history of blatant disregard for the interests and well-being of small farmers around the world, as well as an appalling environmental track record. The strong connections to Monsanto cast serious doubt on the Foundation’s heavy funding of agricultural development in Africa and purported goal of alleviating poverty and hunger among small-scale farmers. Second, this investment represents an enormous conflict of interests.”
Monsanto has already negatively impacted agriculture in African countries. For example, in South Africa in 2009, Monsanto’s genetically modified maize failed to produce kernels and hundreds of farmers were devastated. According to Mariam Mayet, environmental attorney and director of the Africa Centre for Biosafety in Johannesburg, some farmers suffered up to an 80% crop failure. While Monsanto compensated the large-scale farmers to whom it directly sold the faulty product, it gave nothing to the small-scale farmers to whom it had handed out free sachets of seeds. “When the economic power of Gates is coupled with the irresponsibility of Monsanto, the outlook for African smallholders is not very promising,” said Mayet. Monsanto’s aggressive patenting practices have also monopolized control over seed in ways that deny farmers control over their own harvest, going so far as to sue—and bankrupt—farmers for “patent infringement.”
News of the Foundation’s recent Monsanto investment has confirmed the misgivings of many farmers and sustainable agriculture advocates in Africa, among them the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition, who commented, “We have long suspected that the founders of AGRA—the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—had a long and more intimate affair with Monsanto.” Indeed, according to Travis English, researcher with AGRA Watch, “The Foundation’s ownership of Monsanto stock is emblematic of a deeper, more long-standing involvement with the corporation, particularly in Africa.” In 2008, AGRA Watch, a project of the Seattle-based organization Community Alliance for Global Justice, uncovered many linkages between the Foundation’s grantees and Monsanto. For example, some grantees (in particular about 70% of grantees in Kenya) of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)—considered by the Foundation to be its “African face”—work directly with Monsanto on agricultural development projects. Other prominent links include high-level Foundation staff members who were once senior officials for Monsanto, such as Rob Horsch, formerly Monsanto Vice President of International Development Partnerships and current Senior Program Officer of the Gates Agricultural Development Program.
Transnational corporations like Monsanto have been key collaborators with the Foundation and AGRA’s grantees in promoting the spread of industrial agriculture on the continent. This model of production relies on expensive inputs such as chemical fertilizers, genetically modified seeds, and herbicides. Though this package represents enticing market development opportunities for the private sector, many civil society organizations contend it will lead to further displacement of farmers from the land, an actual increase in hunger, and migration to already swollen cities unable to provide employment opportunities. In the words of a representative from the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition, “AGRA is poison for our farming systems and livelihoods. Under the philanthropic banner of greening agriculture, AGRA will eventually eat away what little is left of sustainable small-scale farming in Africa.”
A 2008 report initiated by the World Bank and the UN, the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), promotes alternative solutions to the problems of hunger and poverty that emphasize their social and economic roots. The IAASTD concluded that small-scale agroecological farming is more suitable for the third world than the industrial agricultural model favored by Gates and Monsanto. In a summary of the key findings of IAASTD, the Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) emphasizes the report’s warning that “continued reliance on simplistic technological fixes—including transgenic crops—will not reduce persistent hunger and poverty and could exacerbate environmental problems and worsen social inequity.” Furthermore, PANNA explains, “The Assessment’s 21 key findings suggest that small-scale agroecological farming may offer one of the best means to feed the hungry while protecting the planet.”
The Gates Foundation has been challenged in the past for its questionable investments; in 2007, the L.A. Times exposed the Foundation for investing in its own grantees and for its “holdings in many companies that have failed tests of social responsibility because of environmental lapses, employment discrimination, disregard for worker rights, or unethical practices.” The Times chastised the Foundation for what it called “blind-eye investing,” with at least 41% of its assets invested in “companies that countered the foundation’s charitable goals or socially-concerned philosophy.”
Although the Foundation announced it would reassess its practices, it decided to retain them. As reported by the L.A. Times, chief executive of the Foundation Patty Stonesifer defended their investments, stating, “It would be naïve…to think that changing the foundation’s investment policy could stop the human suffering blamed on the practices of companies in which it invests billions of dollars.” This decision is in direct contradiction to the Foundation’s official “Investment Philosophy”, which, according to its website, “defined areas in which the endowment will not invest, such as companies whose profit model is centrally tied to corporate activity that [Bill and Melinda] find egregious. This is why the endowment does not invest in tobacco stocks.”
More recently, the Foundation has come under fire in its own hometown. This week, 250 Seattle residents sent postcards expressing their concern that the Foundation’s approach to agricultural development, rather than reducing hunger as pledged, would instead “increase farmer debt, enrich agribusiness corporations like Monsanto and Syngenta, degrade the environment, and dispossess small farmers.” In addition to demanding that the Foundation instead fund “socially and ecologically appropriate practices determined locally by African farmers and scientists” and support African food sovereignty, they urged the Foundation to cut all ties to Monsanto and the biotechnology industry.
AGRA Watch, a program of Seattle-based Community Alliance for Global Justice, supports African initiatives and programs that foster farmers’ self-determination and food sovereignty. AGRA Watch also supports public engagement in fighting genetic engineering and exploitative agricultural policies, and demands transparency and accountability on the part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and AGRA.

35 comments
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  1. But lets get this straight the GAtes Foundation spends a lot of money making the developing world better. When Monsanto and others are trying to help a countinent like Africa but agreeing to give away their technology if it can be showed to be useful, this should not be discouraged. Bill Gates happens to recognize that to feed a growing world we need new technology (and old clean technology to be applied to places like Africa. African can’t use the best technology to gropw crops they get 10% the yield in the US this is because they can’t afford the seed and people wouldn’t lend them money because there is a very good chance that drought will make the crop fail but with drought tolerant, insect protected crops they will be more likely to get a crop. Why should the US farmer have this technology to make money and the African small holder not be allowed to use it. You don’t need special equipment or much land. to use GM crops. Most users of GM croips are small holder growers. Look at the facts. Look at the WEMA Bill Gates web site and see for your self. Monsanto is a company who makes money by keeping farmers happy and profitable – there is a very quick response when they don’t – see this years’ sales and again the drought tolerant corn that GAtes is sponsoring is fee of fees that the US farmers have to pay. I hope you would agree with this or would you rather keep the African’s in poverty. tetsingw as just allowed in Kenya and Uganda for drought tolerant corn even when the EU tries to blackmail the countries into staying GM free so that they can feed the EU population. Bill Gates is pretty transparent about his support for good scientific development to help people and that includes GM crops combined with the best traditional genetics
  2. How could Gates do this? Monsanto should be banned from this planet.
  3. Since 1998 I have followed these titanic thieves. Corn and all crops are common heritage. Monsanto sues farmers who are not using their products because the wind blows the pesticide-corn pollen into unwelcoming farms. These two entities will destroy Africa and ultimately poison all the pollinators such as bees, butterflies and all. No pollinators, no food. For 10 thousand years corn thrived, even with the corn borer worm, to feed us. Now, genetically engineered corn is classified as a pesticide because cornseed has Been genetically altered to include that pesticide in every fiber, kernel and grain of pollen. Our soil is dying and soon food will be the weapon of mass oppression worldwide. No tree, blade of grass, fish, grain or eventually, person, will be safe from Big Biotech. It is indeed the end of the world as we know it. Monsanto has destroyed my faith in humanity. Beware the PinkertonPolice in your yard….
  4. Aside from the myriad, cultural, social and economic problems that the first Green Revolution caused for farmers around the world, there have been dire ecological problems, which have resulted in an inability to grow food in certain areas. The technical fixes of the first Green Revolution have left enormous swathes of dead land and dead water — soil devoid of nutrients, biomass, and living organisms that can support life in a sustainable way. Industrial agriculture destroys topsoil and depletes ground water. Over time, it creates dust bowls and dead zones due to pollution run off in the ocean. The person who posted a message about all the good done by the previous Green Revolution should ask Indian farmers about the long term “success” of the Green Revolution and watch the trailer of the film One Man, One Cow, One Planet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcmzK_Mzx5k to see what farmers all over India are doing now to restore their capacity to grow abundant, healthy, organic food with methods that do not require them to buy external inputs such as fertilizer and pesticides.
  5. In response to the first comment, the exclusive focus on yield in this country displaced a lot of farmers who couldn’t keep up with “economies of scale.” Additionally, the US has continued to subsidize industrial crops even though, through the WTO, World Bank, and IMF, most of the Global South had to give up agricultural subsidies and cut their agriculture extension programs. That Gates and co. may be funding higher yields doesn’t take into account or make any steps toward rectifying the historical and political causes of hunger, and they are repeating the first Green Revolution’s focus on yield, at the expense of biodiversity, farmers’ resiliency, variety of nutritious foods, and access to the foods that are available locally and regionally. It’s important to break down the myth that higher yield + “apolitical” scientific advancements = feeding the world, because we’ve already taken that path and it doesn’t work.
    Furthermore, while it may be commendable that Gates and others are concerned about and wants to help Africa and “developing countries,” that does not excuse them for their alliances with TNCs like Monsanto. Likewise, good intent should not excuse them for their adherence to imperialistic mainstream development discourses that a) fail to acknowledge how the West and our “technological advancements” were built on taking resources from and strategically under-developing Africa, b) fail to take on the international political-economic inequalities and structures that contribute to hunger and poverty, and c) do an enormous disservice to the work, struggles, and innovations of African people.
  6. @Mike Stephens>>> Wake up man! Monsanto is bankrupting small farmers all over the planet! They’re development of frankenfoods is poisoning all of us at the cellular level. You’ve bought all the propaganda media/government BS just like you were intended to. You’re a very good little slave/subject.
  7. Mike Stephens you are scaring me man. There is a myriad of reasons why Monsanto is doing more harm than good. First the GMO food contains DNA from things we try to avoid and there is no long term studies done to determine how these things will act in future generations of crops. There is no telling what kinds of mutations will happen. Then there is no telling what will happen to other things as this stuff is cross pollinated with the natural environment. The mutation part is why Monsanto is also modifying the DNA to keep the plant from growing a second season forcing the farmers to buy 100% seed each year. In the past farmers would only supplement with new seed and retain much of the old seed for the next crop. This practice of buying 100% seed will greatly diminish farmers returns and they are already in the red. You are completely wrong that only the small farmers are the ones using Monsanto seed it is the big guys that are using it the small guys get away with older practices of keeping old seed because they don’t show up on Monsanto’s radar. Second Monsanto holds tons of patents on seed and charge high rates to use them so once we are dependent on their seed if there is a problem with their stock we all starve. As far as Gates helping Monsanto that is only giving money to people that already have it. The government subsidizes farmers because they are always in the red and this hurts the world economy because other countries don’t do this. The government pays some farmers not to produce to keep the rates high enough to help the farmers. The US is fertile enough to grow enough food to supply the entire world and we are paying people not to grow. If they wanted to help Africa then they could just buy the corn from the farmers and save the tax payers some money and give the corn to Africa to do with as they please. If you don’t think Monsanto is doing anything wrong well why is it they fight against labeling of food as GMO or not and educating the public as to what that means and letting the public decide what they put into their bodies? The answer is no one would buy the stuff they would loose profits and no longer be in business. This is proven in Europe who does label and the people decided no GMO’s there is no place for our farmers to sell product in Europe because of this.
  8. From what I can ascertain there would seem to be two primary goals, both of which would justify the alignment between the Gates Foundation and Monsanto. Obviously Monsanto wants to profit from increased influence over the food supply. Here’s a link to a Bill Gates presentation at a TED conference as part of a YouTube.com video where he discusses world population.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0gvDkVcFkI&feature=related
    Here’s a link to several resources related to Monsanto and genetically modified agriculture: http://tradewithdave.com/?p=490
  9. Just one more step to turn everyone into complete slaves dependent on the Government, or One World Government that is. Food control is the ultimate weapon.
  10. Well, you certainly see Mr. Gates anti-piracy technology of his MS products, applied to Monsanto seeds, which are re-programmed to grow-once seed and that produce fruits and vegetables with no seeds or no-growing seeds.
  11. Revealing News! Thanks for bringing this forward! The world needs to know how these evil creatures and organizations team up in their agenda of eugenics! We all need to boycott the globalists firm but peacefully! Join the international movement UNITEDWESTRIKE.COM
  12. I have long stated the belief than Microsoft was commercially successful because compromised-blackmailed judges found in it’s favor because Gates is the NSA’s man for internet control and censorship. Foundations have long been conduits for CounterInsurgency and the Monsanto connection fits.
  13. Science without heart and full integrity…. is like a dark, hungry wolf .. in sleeping sheep’s clothing.
    I wouldn’t put stock in either of them.
  14. Check out this talk by Gates at TED.
    Next to the video you read a couple of interesting things that Gates says during the talk.
    A ‘Freudian slip’?
    http://www.soanews.com/featured_videos.html
  15. Monsanto does not sell seeds “reprogrammed to grow-once,” since these (with the “Terminator” gene) have been under a moratorium imposed by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). My understanding is that the moratorium may be lifted at the next meeting (Oct, in Nagoya, Japan). Monsanto certainly has developed such seeds and has them ready for commercialization.
    Unfortunately, there is no effective governmental oversight (independent risk assessment and testing) regarding Monsanto’s seeds. So the possible damages can not be discounted.
  16. Monsanto is Completely evil.
  17. Monsanto has proven to be a most evil company. We should also note that it was Gate’s family that headed up planned parenthood and that Bill would love to see a LARGE global population reduction through the use of anti-fertility vaccines. Do the research, get the truth. I would love nothing more than to see Monsanto bankrupt and wiped off the face of the planet. Suing farmers for pollen blowing over into their fields? How low can you get?
  18. Hey Mike Stephens, I don’t know how well informed you are about who Monsanto is. from this insanely naive comment “But lets get this straight the Gates Foundation spends a lot of money making the developing world better. When Monsanto and others are trying to help a continent like Africa but agreeing to give away their technology if it can be showed to be useful, this should not be discouraged.” It sounds like not at all. Talk to any family farm to whom Monsanto “agreed to give away their technology” they don’t do this. this is their version of a drug dealer giving you free crack so they can you get you addicted. only they also lock you down with huge legal contracts that basically bind the farmer into a serfdom relationship with them. This is a classic case of business and charity and philanthropy as usual. While Monsanto robs the countries blind, binds them in legal and economic traps The Gates foundation will be disbursing grants to provide economic relief and cures to diseases that may well been caused by Monsanto it self. Where is Gates Found getting the grant money from? The exploitative profiteering of Monsanto. Africa would be better off not getting either Satan’s tech nor Gate’s money. They should has Haiti did burn all the equipment as soon as it touches African soil. also see this: http://aidwatchers.com/2010/08/africans-do-not-want-or-need-britains-development-aid/
  19. I am apalled but not surprised. I read through this pretty quickly as I just got to work! The information you have provided is stellar,however like alot of these articles, I read them, get fired up and there are no solutions offered! Can you provide these as well as this information? Thank you, Victoria
  20. Yes, Martin, I agree, but do not pay attention to the comments made such as Mike Stephens, who happens to be a lead guy at Monsanto, there for over 11 years… Isn’t that right, Mike? These guys surf the net just for anti-Monsantoisms so they can try to dupe the public with their mis-information and make it look as if Monsanto is a ‘good guy’. Right, Mike? Looks like we aren’t being fooled any more!!! The public is stirring from its long sleep…wake up yourself and find a better job before it is too late.
  21. Mike Stephens, Monsanto paid liar, have you seen this great documentary on the corp that puts cash in your pockets and poison in our food system. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6262083407501596844# Also how much did yall pay USDA for this? http://truefoodnow.org/2010/09/02/coalition-of-farm-an-consumer-groups-condemns-usda-action-permitting-planting-o-monsantos-genetically-engineered-sugar-beets/
  22. Mike, you are blinded by your paycheck.
  23. How reckless can you get, I thought the Gates Foundation was mindful and honorable. The truth comes out eventually I guess, control of the people that is all you wanted. Think of all the destruction of the people and the earth that Monsanto has done already. All the health of families around the world has been compromised already for generations. Do you need more experiments on how to destroy the infrastructure or what? Another way to destroy people’s seasons and rituals. Shame on you Gates Foundation and Monsanto What is the difference between theGates Foundations/ Monsanto and the Mafia. A Legitimately controlled Mafia?
  24. @Gilda, thank you for sharing who Mike Stephens is.
    I looked it up. and indeed ya’ll are correct. he the lead in St.Louis. Good catch!!!!
  25. Schumacher was on the money when he said that the only really helpful technology is intermediate technology. Technology that a community can step into, use and maintain. If we really want to help, we must resist the temptation to bestow the benefits of a supposedly superior intellect and culture and engage with a community to explore and develop progress in their terms, not ours.
  26. Thank goodness someone is critical of “the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation”. The Investment in Monsanto should be a red flag to everyone who suggest this foundation is saving lives all over the globe.They are not. In fact , if you research carefully one will find this foundation slowly killing people with there programs all aroung the globe.
  27. As a farmer I can say Monsanto seeds are bad. They are bad because the seed are terminator seeds they only have one life and will not yield more crops, so even thought there seeds cost less you will have to buy more yearly. To see Bill Gates doing this surprised me but I don’t want to jump to conclusions to soon.
  28. Bill Gates needs to be alerted to the prevailing bad impact Monsanto has on the livelyhood of Farmers and the ecological damage the company causes worldwide!
  29. it can be very easy to compare the two technologies, one is to set up an experiment in various third world countries for a 10 year span to see the effects of changing weather, social and economic impacts on the small grower, lets say you get 12 growers in each country or region and make 3 groups, A- let them have the money they requiere to use all the conventional modern technologies and B- let have the same amount of money and let them produce the way they have produced by years and C- a group that uses the organic farming technologies, you can make comparisons every year and at the end of the 10 years, lets see what group of farmers are better off.. this will settle all the discussion.
  30. I am done supporting Bill Gates. Next computer won’t be one of his.
  31. Pollinating insects have become a theatened species globally, from U.S. to Italy to China (where they use human workers to pollinate fruit trees.) An isolated test could be done with a pesticide infused GM planting using a hive of pollinating bees and see what happens to the bees to clear up the issue of possible connection.
  32. With fame and fortune comes responsibility and as I see, read and talk to farmers oversees, there is evidence that The Gates Foundation and Monsanto are destroying the planet while the are becoming more wealthy with blood money. I think it’s time for the rich and famous to wake up from their unconsciousness and begin to have compassion for the hard working farmer. Stop GMOs immediately before is too late. Don’t forget that there is Karma for all human beings!.
  33. If you think Bill Gates wants to save the world, then you need to watch this excerpt from his TED conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WQtRI7A064
  34. There’s power, there’s money, there’s intelligence and education, and then there’s consciousness. Bill Gates and the Foundation may have power, money, intelligence and education, but they are extremely low on the scale of consciousness. Consciousness is expanded awareness: rather than looking at something with blinders on you can see the whole picture and the long-term picture and choose to do things with integrity, knowing that everything you do now can destroy the planet and health of the people who live on earth. To Bill Gates i say, “wake up and take off your blinders!”. “All the good you have done is cancelled out by the support of GMOs and Monsanto. There is a wealth of negative informationon GMOs that is beyond the sight of your blinders. How come other countries and leaders can see it and not you? Open your EYES.”
  35. Solutions for feeding the world using agroecology can see seen in a new film/movie by Marie Monique Robin (The World According to Monsanto). This film, Harvests of the Future, focuses on positive solutions to replaced failed industrial agriculture methods. If human thought and resourcefulness focusses on need and not greed and works with nature, solutions are abundant! This film is thoroughly researched, inspiring, moving, and full of the facts we need to be able to discuss this issue.
    Harvest of the Future (Marie Monique Robin), has just been shown on ARTE television and is available on DVD in English, at the moment mainly on sale in Germany and France. If you look at Amazon.uk you will see my review of this film, I really hope English speakers can buy and watch this film very soon, it is a masterpiece.

Bill Gates And Monsanto Team Up To Fight World Hunger REAL COOL I LIKE EATING CANCER EVERY DAY GREAT JOB BILL GATES NOTHING LIKE 1 IN 3 GET CANCER NOW DO TO MONSANTO

Bill Gates And Monsanto Team Up To Fight World Hunger

In his annual letter for 2012, Bill Gates announced that the Gates Foundation intends to combat world hunger by investing in genetically modified agriculture.
Two bowls full of uncooked rice.  The rice in the top bowl is bright yellow in color.  The rice in the bottom bowl is standard white rice.
Golden Rice (top) has been genetically modified to be high in beta-carotene. Developers hope that it will reduce rates of blindness caused by Vitamin A deficiency in south-east Asia.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation wants to feed the world and thinks GMOs — Genetically Modified Organisms — are the way to do it.
Critics are voicing skepticism about the motives behind this recent announcement, however. In 2010, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation bought 500,000 shares of Monsanto, a leading producer of GMOs, worth a total of $23 billion.

A New “Green Revolution”

Bill Gates recently released his annual letter for 2012, which outlines the foundation’s goals for the coming year.
The promise of the world’s agricultural future, Gates says, can be modeled on our past: the “Green Revolution” of the 1960s and 1970s, wherein engineered crops for wheat, corn, and rice helped farmers in poor nations “vastly improve their yields.”
He also stresses the importance of developing crop strains that can withstand common blights, like wheat resistant to stem rust fungus (Ug99) in the horn of Africa, and rice that can withstand increased flooding caused by global warming in Bangladesh and India.
This follows a similar announcement made by the foundation a year ago.

A Golden Promise?

In 2011, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $20 million to the development of “Golden Rice,” a genetically-modified rice strain high in beta-carotene.
Monsanto is a major patent-holder for the technology required to produce Golden Rice.
But Golden Rice, which first appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in 2000, still hasn’t been distributed to farmers, nor has any announcement been made about when distribution will be ready to begin.

Keep Eating Your Veggies

Dr. Vandana Shiva, environmental activist, has campaigned actively against the use of Golden Rice and other GMOs to alleviate hunger in the third world.
The benefits of the GMOs would be outweighed by the risks associated with mono-crop farming, she says. The farmers would also have to place themselves at the mercy of the genetically-modified seeds’ patent-holders.
Additionally, Greenpeace points out that no single GMO crop will alleviate the need for a balanced diet.
“Why go to the problem of producing golden rice when you still have to eat vegetables anyway?” asked Beau Baconguis in 2003. She worked for Greenpeace tracking the use of GM products in Asia.
“Just go straight to the vegetables and eat the vegetables for your vitamin A.”

Read More:

Sarah Gordon Sarah Gordon has been interested in food ethics since she was 15, learned about industrial slaughter, and launched into 10 years of vegetarianism. These days, she strives to be a conscientious omnivore. Now a PhD candidate in folklore, her research has caused her to spend a lot of time in the remote Canadian sub-arctic, where the lake trout (sustainably harvested) tastes amazing.

Bill Gates Dodges Questions on Why He Owns 500,000 Shares of Monsanto

Bill Gates Dodges Questions on Why He Owns 500,000 Shares of Monsanto


Anthony Gucciardi
Infowars.com
Feb 12, 2013
Bill Gates is primarily known as the multi-billionaire who Microsoft, the company behind the most popular computer operating system known as Windows. With this massive wealth, he has retired from leading Microsoft and now instead focuses his money and time on furthering genetically modified technology, geoengineering, experimental vaccinations, and preaching about how Monsanto is the answer to world hunger.
It should come as no surprise, then, that Gates owns 500,000 shares worth 23 million US dollars (or more) of Monsanto stock. The very same company that has been caught running slave rings in Argentina in which workers were forced to work 14+ hours a day while withholding payment, has used their massive finances to fund organizations that literally fake FDA quotes to support GMOs, and of course peddling through GMOs that have been linked to numerous health concerns.
This is not even taking into account the farmer suicides that occur around every 30 minutes due to Monsanto’s failing GMO crop yield bankrupting small-time farmers in India’s notorious ‘suicide belt‘.
Bill Gates Funding Corporations Caught in Child Slave Rings
And if that’s not enough, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has even teamed up with Cargill to pump GMO soy into the third world. Cargill, of course, is the the 133 billion dollar corporation that also has been found in direct violation of human rights laws. Cargill was sued by the International Labor Rights Fund for trafficking children from Mali and forcing them to work on cocoa bean plantations for around 12 to 14 hours each day without pay, food, or sleep. The company even continues to purchase cotton from Uzbekistan, where it is well known that child slave labor is used in the cultivation.
Bill Gates himself even filmed commercials for Monsanto’s GMOs, propping them up as the ‘solution’ to world hunger despite even the United Nations admitting that GMOs cannot fight hunger as effectively as traditional farming. Headed by an entity known as the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), a team of 900 scientists and researchers studied the issue of world hunger. The results of the major study were very simple: 900 scientists agreed that GMO crops were not the answer to the world hunger, and revealed this in 2008 — long before Bill Gates began claiming that GMOs were the answer while ignoring this readily available information.
Even the Union of Concerned Scientists examined the true yield of GMO crops, only to find that the GM crops do not produce increased yields over the long run — despite their excessive cost and extreme danger to health and environment. The lack of scientific support behind the GMO crops was so startling to the Union that they documented all the details in a 2009 report entitled ”Failure to Yield.”
Watchdog groups have criticized Gates’ support of these corporations after finding out about his massive funding. One such group, a part of the Community Alliance for Global Justice, stated:
“Monsanto has a history of blatant disregard for the interests and well being of small farmers around the world… [This] casts serious doubt on the foundation’s heavy funding of agricultural development in Africa…”
So why is Bill Gates, a man who is propped up by the media as an angel of philanthropy, pumping millions (if not billions) into these operations? And why is he claiming that GMOs can fight world hunger when we know this is not true due to decreased yields and other problems?
I Asked Bill Gates Why
In a unique opportunity to ask Bill Gates himself why he has purchased 500,000 shares of Monsanto behind the scenes (expelled into the news thanks to tax information) and teamed up with Cargill to expand GMOs worldwide, myself and several others asked him ourselves.
Yesterday Gates opened himself up to questions from online users via the social sharing site Reddit, in which he posted an open interview of sorts known as an ‘Ask me Anything’ post. This is essentially an invitation for questions that the subject will answer via text. While I had a large number of questions for Gates, such as if he actually eats GMOs himself, I simply asked him:
“Why did you buy 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock?”
Unsurprisingly, the comment received a large degree of feedback. Users asked Gates to please respond to the question, and several others posed similar variations to Gates that all went unanswered (as to be expected). Some quotes from users in response to my question included:
User Lawfairy replied: “I wish he’d answered this one — to me, this is one of the most curious things about Mr. Gates, whom I otherwise respect as one of the foremost humanists of our generation… Mr. Gates’ relationship with Monsanto is, in my mind, simultaneously the most morally troubling thing about Mr. Gates”
Another user posted (with links intact): “Would you be willing to take some time to give us some insight with your investments in Monsanto? Despite having the headlines of “ending world hunger”, this company has done some despicable things in the past 100 years and I don’t believe they have the public’s best interest in mind. Having a single company or entity trying to “control”, “manipulate” or “own” the world’s food supply, in my opinion, is not the way to end world hunger.”
Another user answered with: “Because he is supporting the Bilderberg group!”
None of these received a response nor did the many others I could not include in this article. The answer, it seems, is to bring this topic to the mainstream. The very same mainstream that seems to think Bill Gates is some sort of philanthropic super star that can do no evil. I am opposed to all wrongdoing at every level, and I find it absolutely disturbing that someone funding the GMO agenda and sand I find it absolutely disturbing that someone funding the GMO agenda and slave-labor-linked companies has been met with applause. This post originally appeared at Natural Society

Bill Gates says he has no use for money… He is doing ‘God’s work’ OK THEN BILL GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY AT LEAST I WILL SAVE THE WORLD

Bill Gates says he has no use for money… He is doing ‘God’s work’


0128adicate polio, with the same drive he brought to Microsoft .
William Henry “Bill” Gates is a rich man. His estimated wealth, some 65  billion measured in US dollars, equals the annual GDP of Ecuador, and maybe a bit more than that of Croatia. By this rather crude criterion, the founder of Microsoft is worth two Kenyas, three Trinidads and a dozen or so Montenegros. Not bad for a university dropout.
Gates is also mortal, although some of his admirers may find that hard to believe, and as they say, there are no pockets in shrouds. So he is now engaged in the process of ridding himself of all that money in the hope of extending the lives of others less fortunate than himself.
“I’m certainly well taken care of in terms of food and clothes,” he says, redundantly. “Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point. Its utility is entirely in building an organisation and getting the resources out to the poorest in the world.”
That “certain point” is set a little higher than for the rest of us – Gates owns a lakeside estate in Washington State worth about $150 million (£94  million) and boasting a swimming pool equipped with an underwater music system – but one gets the point. Being rich, even on the cosmic scale attained by Bill Gates, is no guarantee of an enduring place in history. The projection of the personal computer into daily life should do the trick for him, but even at the age of 57 he is a restless man and wants something more. The “more” is the eradication of a disease that has blighted untold numbers of lives: polio.
Later this month, Gates will deliver the BBC’s Dimbleby Lecture, taking as his theme the value of the young human being. Every child, he will say, has the right to a healthy and productive life, and he will explain how technology and innovation can help towards the attainment of that still-distant goal. Gates has put his money where his mouth is. He and his wife Melinda have so far given away $28 billion via their charitable foundation, more than $8  billion of it to improve global health.
“My wife and I had a long dialogue about how we were going to take the wealth that we’re lucky enough to have and give it back in a way that’s most impactful to the world,” he says. “Both of us worked at Microsoft and saw that if you take innovation and smart people, the ability to measure what’s working, that you can pull together some pretty dramatic things.
“We’re focused on the help of the poorest in the world, which really drives you into vaccination. You can actually take a disease and get rid of it altogether, like we are doing with polio.”
This has been done only once before in humans, with the eradication of smallpox in the 1970s.
“Polio’s pretty special because once you get an eradication you no longer have to spend money on it; it’s just there as a gift for the rest of time.”
One can see why that appeals to Gates. He has always sought neat, definitive solutions to things, but as he knows from Microsoft, bugs are resilient things. The disease is still endemic in Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and killing it off altogether has been likened to squeezing jelly to death. There is another, sinister obstacle: the propagation by Islamist groups of the belief that polio vaccination is a front for covert sterilisation and other western evils. Health workers in Pakistan have paid with their lives for involvement in the programme.
“It’s not going to stop us succeeding,” says Gates. “It does force us to sit down with the Pakistan government to renew their commitments, see what they’re going to do in security and make changes to protect the women who are doing God’s work and getting out to these children and delivering the vaccine.”
Gates does not usually speak in religious terms, and has traditionally danced around the issue of God. His wife, a Roman Catholic, is less defensive on that topic but ploughs her own furrow, encouraging contraception when necessary, in contradiction to teaching from Rome.
“Melinda and I had been talking about this even before we were married,” he says. “When I was in my 40s Microsoft was my primary activity. The big switch for me was when I decided to make the foundation my primary purpose. It was a big change, although there are more in common with the two things than you might think – meeting with scientists, taking on tough challenges, people being sceptical that you can get things done.”
Gates is still chairman of Microsoft but without his day-to-day attention it has taken on the appearance of a weary giant, trailing Apple and Google in innovation. Some have called for Gates’s return to the company full-time to inject some verve but he isn’t coming back.
“My full-time work for the rest of my life will be at the foundation,” he says. “I still work part-time for Microsoft. I’ve had two careers and I’m lucky that both of them have been quite amazing.
“I loved my Microsoft: it prepared me for what I’m doing now. In the same way that I got to see the PC and internet revolutions, now I see child death rates coming down. I work very long hours and try to learn as much as I can about these things, but that’s because I enjoy it.”
He emphasises that the foundation’s effort is part of a global campaign in which governments must play the lead role.
“The scale of the (foundation’s) wealth compared to government budgets is actually not that large, and compared to the scale of some of these problems. But I do feel lucky that substantial resources are going back to make the world a more habitable place.”
In 1990 some 12 million children under the age of five died. The figure today is about seven million, or 19,000 per day. According to the United Nations, the leading causes of death are pneumonia (18 per cent), pre-birth complications (14 per cent), diarrhoea (11 per cent), complications during birth (nine per cent) and malaria (seven per cent). For Gates, though, polio is a totem. The abolition of the disease will be a headline-grabber, spurring countries on to greater efforts. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will spend $1.8 billion in the next six years to accomplish that goal, almost a third of the global effort.
“All you need is over 90 per cent of children to have the vaccine drop three times and the disease stops spreading. The number of cases eventually goes to zero. When we started, we had over 400,000 children a year being paralysed and we are now down to under 1,000 cases a year. The great thing about finishing polio is that we’ll have resources to get going on malaria and measles.”
Gates is no saint. He could be an intimidating boss at Microsoft and his company became notorious for using its clout to reinforce its dominance in the market place, at the expense of smaller rivals. Still, he and his wife are showing generosity on a staggering scale, a counterblast to the endemic greed of the Nineties and early Noughties, and they have convinced others that mega-philanthropy is the way of the future. That wily investor, Warren Buffett, has so far given away $17.5 billion via the Gates Foundation.
The children of Bill and Melinda Gates will never know poverty. They may not become multibillionaires but even the loss to charity of the vast bulk of their parents’ fortune should leave them with a billion or so each.
Gates explains: “The vast majority of the wealth, over 95 per cent, goes to the foundation, which will spend all that money within 20 years after neither of us are around any more.”
So, is it about some new-found faith, all this giving?
“It doesn’t relate to any particular religion; it’s about human dignity and equality,” he says. “The golden rule that all lives have equal value and we should treat people as we would like to be treated.”
Source:
telegraph.co.uk

THIS IS WHY OBAMA IS TRY IN TO KILL ASSAD US President Barack Obama surprised his visitors, the delegation of Eastern Christians patriarchs, on Thursday when he told them that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “protected the Christians in Syria.”

US President Barack Obama surprised his visitors, the delegation of Eastern Christians patriarchs, on Thursday when he told them that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “protected the Christians in Syria.”

THIS IS WHY OBAMA WANTS TO KILL ASSAD Obama: Assad Protected Christians In Syria

Obama: Assad Protected Christians In Syria
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Bashar Assad
In this photo taken on Sunday, April 20, 2014, and released on the official Facebook page of the Syrian Presidency, Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, checks a damaged church during his visit to the Christian village of Maaloula, near Damascus, Syria. (Photo: Syrian Presidency via Facebook)


HomeReports:

US President Barack Obama surprised his visitors, the delegation of Eastern Christians patriarchs, on Thursday when he told them that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “protected the Christians in Syria.”
Obama met with the delegation in the White House for 35 minutes, during which the patriarchs presented a paper in which they exposed the situation of Christians in the Middle East and the threats and challenges they are facing, due in part to the expansion of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group.
Sources told Al-Akhbar that the highlight of the meeting was when Obama said the following phrase: “We know that President Bashar al-Assad protected Christians in Syria.”
Obama then used the term “the Syrian government” instead of “regime,” which is usually used by the US to describe the government in Syria.
The confused attendees could not believe what they heard. However, one of the guests addressed Obama and said: “Then you should stop talking about a moderate Syrian opposition.”
Obama spoke about the planned US airstrikes in Syria, claiming that they will help “facilitate the (Syrian) political process.”
The US president then reiterated his country’s “support for the Lebanese army,” explaining that the “weaponry the US gave to the Lebanese army is the best response to ISIS in Lebanon.”
Meanwhile, Republican Texas senator Ted Cruz was booed off stage Wednesday night in Washington when he defended Israel at a gala sponsored by In Defense of Christians, a group whose objective is to focus public attention on the plight of persecuted Middle East Christian groups.
“Christians have no greater ally than Israel,” Cruz said, drawing a sharp response from the audience who started booing.
“Those who hate Israel hate America. Those who hate Jews hate Christians,” he continued. At that point, the booing got louder.
“If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, then I will not stand with you. Thank you and God bless you,” Cruz said before walking off stage.
Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Rai asked the attendees “not to to respond to Cruz and to focus on the conference and its objectives instead of individual statements.”
The Patriarch of Antioch and All the East and the spiritual leader of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Gregory III Lahham, and Lebanon’s ambassador to Washington Antoine Shadid both withdrew from the dinner after Cruz attacked Hezbollah.
Lahham also refused to participate in a session about the situation of Christians in the Middle East because of its dubious objectives and problematic speakers.
Lahham found out that US state representative Chris Smith, who was scheduled to give a speech in the session, was planning on condemning Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, something that Lahham regarded as a departure from the conference’s objectives.
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BREAKING PHOTOS OF SAQLAWIYAH MASSACRE – Dead Soldiers Piled on Street – 300 Dead in Chlorine Gas Attack

BREAKING PHOTOS OF SAQLAWIYAH MASSACRE – Dead Soldiers Piled on Street – 300 Dead in Chlorine Gas Attack

Posted by Jim Hoft on Tuesday, September 23, 2014, 9:44 AM

 
 
URGENT: On Sunday ISIS terrorists slaughtered 300 Iraqi soldiers by chlorine gas attack in Saqlawiyah.
Several Iraqi officials spoke out against the chemical weapons attack…
A number of Iraqi troops were also kidnapped and slaughtered by the terrorists.
ISIS posted this photo of the massacre.
saklawiyah saqlawiyah
News from Saklawiyah (Saqlawwiyah)
Apparently another massacre of Iraqi soldiers there.
On Monday, several Iraqi officials confirmed that ISIS murdered over 300 soldiers using chlorine gas in Saqlawiyah, north of Fallujah.
The soldiers suffocated and died from the chemical attack.
iraqi news gas attack
(Iraqi News photo)
Vice President Osama Nujaifi condemned the massacre at Saqlawiyah base in Anbar Province.
ISIS militants used suicide bombers and chlorine gas to kill 300 Iraqi soldiers.
Iraqi News Agency reported:
Vice President Osama Nujaifi condemned the “heinous crime which perpetrated by terrorist Daash in killing three hundred soldiers were trapped in the regions of Saqlawiyah and Alsger of Anbar province.
Nujaifi said in a statement by his press office: “The media picked up another terrible crime committed by the terrorist Daash, where its terrorist elements surrounded military unit to do its job in defending the homeland, then do the execution of its adherents were their families after running out of ammunition.
Terrorist, Daash used Chlorine gas in the area of Saqlawiyah, after surrounding more than 400 soldiers, which led to the death of three hundreds of them because of suffocation.
ISIS reportedly looted the base after the attack.
This was reportedly the first time ISIS used chemical weapons in an attack.
The ISIS terrorists claimed they captured several tanks at the base.
tanks saqlawiyah
But they lied. Thomas W. wrote in that the tanks pictured are Egyptian tanks.

Exclusive: U.S. told Iran of intent to strike Islamic State in Syria - source


Exclusive: U.S. told Iran of intent to strike Islamic State in Syria - source


Reuters

Obama To Address UN General Assembly Amid New Mideast Strikes

By Parisa Hafezi, Louis Charbonneau and Arshad Mohammed
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States informed Iran in advance of its intention to strike Islamic State militants in Syria and assured Tehran that it would not target the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a senior Iranian official told Reuters.
The communication, confirmed in part by a senior U.S. State Department official, may signal the estranged foes are inching toward a level of contacts rarely seen in over three decades since the 1979 Islamic revolution when a hostage crisis prompted Washington to sever ties with Tehran.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the senior Iranian official said Tehran had voiced concern for Assad, its closest regional ally and the recipient of Iranian military support during a Syrian civil war now in its fourth year.
"Iran was concerned about Assad's position and his government being weakened in case of any action against IS (Islamic State) in Syria and brought this issue up in meetings with Americans," the senior Iranian official said.
"This issue was first discussed in Geneva and then was discussed thoroughly in New York where Iran was assured that Assad and his government will not be targeted in case of any military action against Daesh (Islamic State) in Syria."
The Iranian official said Iran was informed separately in advance of the airstrikes launched by Washington and Arab allies against Islamic State positions in Syria for the first time.
Asked about the assurance that Syrian government forces would not be targeted, the senior U.S. State Department official told Reuters: "We communicated our intentions, but not specific timing or targets, to the Iranians. As we've said, we won't be coordinating military action with Iran. And of course we won't be sharing intelligence with Iran either."
NUCLEAR TALKS
The public communication has included some mixed signals.
Both Iran and the United States acknowledge having an interest in defeating Islamic State.
Tehran has called on the world to fight the militants, who stand accused of a wave of violence, beheadings and massacres of civilians while taking over swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq.
Speaking to senior editors in New York, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stopped short of endorsing or condemning the airstrikes by the United States and Arab allies, though he raised questions about its legality.
He described this week as an important one for his country's talks with world powers, including the United States, which are meant to forge a long-term accord by Nov. 24 that would end sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ruled out cooperating with the United States to tackle the hardline Sunni militant group.
But other Iranian officials have told Reuters that Tehran would be ready to work with Western powers to stop the militants in return for concessions in the nuclear talks on Tehran's uranium enrichment program.
On Monday the White House said it would refuse to connect nuclear talks, under way on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York this week, with the fight against the militant group.
IRAN-U.S. COOPERATION
Iranian officials told Reuters privately that Iran already was cooperating with Washington in the fight against the jihadist rebels.
"This is an intelligence matter and I can assure you geopolitical and intelligence matters will not be shared with Americans ... but military and security issues are being shared to fight against IS (Islamic State)," a senior Iran security official said.
Tehran's leadership has approved the "idea of cooperation with the Americans," he said, because it serves Iran's interests.
Iran has occasionally shared classified information with Washington, including during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the conflict in Iraq.
(Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Howard Goller)