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Can you provide some more information instead of just muddying the waters? What are these "lot of bad calls". What are you referring to exactly? >I don’t know
by la_barba 7y ago
Can you provide some more information instead of just muddying the waters? What are these "lot of bad calls". What are you referring to exactly?
>I don’t know why there’s an attitude of “Its philanthropic! It’s good!” Some of it is not.
Its not good just because its philanthropic, its good because they are investing money fighting diseases that nobody is interested in curing because there is no money in it (because the victims are from poor countries). A prime example is tuberculosis.
- erikpukinskis 7y agoTrying to get small African farmers to grow monocrops with seeds from giant Ag companies and making it harder for them to do ecologically sensitive farming.
- la_barba 7y agoOkay, you got me. Farming and agriculture is not my wheelhouse, so I can't really discuss it with a high level of confidence or familiarity. But AFAIK the gates foundation doesn't make anyone buy anything, they issue grants. They have identified the root cause of yields in agriculture is the soil/seeds. Maybe the problem can be solved without pest/soil resistant GM seeds, but the fact remains that the food supply situation is getting worse on that continent. I'm sure there are other aspects to it like distribution/infrastructure/government investment/etc. Also to your specific point - according to their own website https://agra.org/faqs/#1518765023405-cb110e47-d755 https://agra.org/faqs/#1518765023405-cb110e47-d755 "AGRA has never taken a monocropping approach to agricultural development. We have invested millions of dollars in breeding minor crops grown by smallholder farmers in order to help them maintain diversity even as agricultural systems intensify." I'm not going to blindly believe them, I'll give them a chance to make their case...