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To: Monsanto, Hugh Grant and Board of Directors, CEO & Boad of Directors and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Co-Chairs and Trustees
GATES FOUNDATION & MONSANTO: STAY OUT OF AFRICA
The Gates Foundation recently purchased 500,000 shares of Monsanto to help Africa have their own Green Revolution using Monsanto GMO rice. “In his annual letter for 2012, Bill Gates announced that the Gates Foundation intends to combat world hunger by investing in genetically modified agriculture….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.”
In the 1960s and 1970s farms in India adopted the "Green Revolution.” Indian farmers started growing crops the American way — with American chemicals, high-yield seeds, GMO seeds and irrigation. American industry pressured Indian farmers to grow only high-yield wheat, rice and cotton instead of their traditional mix of crops. The results have been: losing 3 feet of groundwater per year; having to drill ever deeper wells; destroying precious soil with chemicals and salt water intrusion; having to import rice; while farmers have become deeply indebted, resulting in 17,000 farmers committing suicide every year. High-yield crops gobble up nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous, iron and manganese, making the soil anemic. Farmers say they must use three times as much fertilizer as they used to, to produce the same amount of crops — yet another drain on their finances. Family members have moved away to find jobs, because they couldn't make a living farming, and now they send part of their income back to support their farming relatives.
Indian farmers have lost many of their long-held seed (from generations of families) to companies like Monsanto, who change the seed slightly, then create patents. As a result, many Indian farmers cannot sell their rice overseas. GMO crops have spread, changing complex natural ecologies and mutating nearby food crops. England, Europe, China and Peru have banned the growing and sales of GMO crops, primarily produced by Monsanto, who is also buying up seed companies in the USA.
In the 1960s and 1970s farms in India adopted the "Green Revolution.” Indian farmers started growing crops the American way — with American chemicals, high-yield seeds, GMO seeds and irrigation. American industry pressured Indian farmers to grow only high-yield wheat, rice and cotton instead of their traditional mix of crops. The results have been: losing 3 feet of groundwater per year; having to drill ever deeper wells; destroying precious soil with chemicals and salt water intrusion; having to import rice; while farmers have become deeply indebted, resulting in 17,000 farmers committing suicide every year. High-yield crops gobble up nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous, iron and manganese, making the soil anemic. Farmers say they must use three times as much fertilizer as they used to, to produce the same amount of crops — yet another drain on their finances. Family members have moved away to find jobs, because they couldn't make a living farming, and now they send part of their income back to support their farming relatives.
Indian farmers have lost many of their long-held seed (from generations of families) to companies like Monsanto, who change the seed slightly, then create patents. As a result, many Indian farmers cannot sell their rice overseas. GMO crops have spread, changing complex natural ecologies and mutating nearby food crops. England, Europe, China and Peru have banned the growing and sales of GMO crops, primarily produced by Monsanto, who is also buying up seed companies in the USA.
Why is this important?
Gates Foundation is partnering with Monsanto to bring a Green Revolution to Africa. This would hurt Africa, as it has hurt India (India's Green Revolution is 40 years old). In India the Green Revolution brought on farmers' suicides because it destroyed soil, wasted precious water, and indebted farmers and their families. Monsanto and Gates Foundation want to introduce GMO