Microsoft founder Bill Gates said on October 15 that environmentalists who are adamantly opposed to using genetically modified crops in Africa are hindering efforts to end hunger on that continent.

Gates was speaking at the annual World Food Prize forum, which honors those who make important contributions to improving agriculture and ending hunger. He noted that genetically modified crops, fertilizers, and chemicals could all help small African farms produce more food, but environmentalists who resist their use are standing in the way.

“This global effort to help small farmers is endangered by an ideological wedge that threatens to split the movement in two,” Gates told the forum. “Some people insist on an ideal vision of the environment. They have tried to restrict the spread of biotechnology into sub-Saharan Africa without regard to how much hunger and poverty might be reduced by it, or what the farmers themselves might want.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $1.4 billion to developing agriculture by assisting poor, small-scale farmers to grow and sell more crops, thereby alleviating hunger and poverty simultaneously. Gates announced at the forum nine new grants totaling $120 million that will be directed toward increasing crop yields and enhancing farmers’ skills.

Projects receiving the funding include those developing legumes that fix nitrogen in the soil, sorghum and millet that have higher yields, and sweet potatoes that resist pests. Another project will aid governments in Africa to put in place policies that would benefit small farms. Gates specifically pointed out that these small-scale farmers need training and access to markets, not just a supply of improved seeds.

The Gates Foundation is also partnering with researchers who are using both conventional crop-breeding and biotechnology to produce drought-tolerant corn. And other work is being conducted on flood-tolerant rice and wheat that is resistant to a virulent form of rust disease.

“The technologies will be licensed royalty free to seed distributors so that the new seeds can be sold to African farmers without extra charge,” Gates declared. “I hope that the debate over productivity will not slow the distribution of these seeds.”

For all the technology at Gates’ disposal, he apparently never received the memo that politically correct environmental extremism must be adhered to even when — if not especially when — it causes humans to suffer. For Gates to openly, publicly, and honestly criticize environmental extremists shows he is probably genuinely concerned about the people he is trying to help, which is the opposite attitude from those who always put the environment ahead of people.

It would never even occur to radical environmentalists that people are the most valuable natural resource in need of saving. It is refreshing to hear a public figure emphasizing “how much hunger and poverty might be reduced” and focusing on providing “what the farmers themselves might want” rather than fanatically insisting on “an ideal vision of the environment.”

Bill Gates’ own words say it best:

On one side is a technological approach that increases productivity.

On the other side is an environmental approach that promotes sustainability.

Productivity or sustainability — they say you have to choose.

It’s a false choice, and it’s dangerous for the field. It blocks important advances. It breeds hostility among people who need to work together. And it makes it hard to launch a comprehensive program to help poor farmers.

The fact is, we need both productivity and sustainability — and there is no reason we can’t have both.

Photo: AP Images

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Flu-Bird said:

	The evils of the greens Africa has become the victim of the evils of deep ecology and enviromentalism these greens dont want the aficans to have clean running water and electricity and the banning of DDT based on junk science proves what the damages of enviromentalism has cuased
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October 16, 2009
Votes: +4

Eve said:

Death by Environmentalist Environmentalist groups have killed One Billion people in the last 40 years and they are not done yet. They like killing black people so there is no hope that Africans will ever be allowed to have genetically modified seeds, DDT or even running water. They certainly would not let them have electriity made from coal plants or even hydro electic plants and certainly not nuclear. Please people think before you give money to these organizations. They are murderers.

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October 17, 2009
Votes: +1

Joseph Putnoki said:

resource person The first 2 comments are primitive, ignorant, racist and wrong! Frothing at the mouth is not to replace civilised, disciplined debate. An example of abuse of free speech. Bill Gates and his wife do a lot of good too. Doctors, scientists, judges and others often get it wrong with dire consequences. Even geniuses like Einstein got it wrong routinely. The last thing he did not accept was the validity of quantum mechanics. Bill Gates entering the controversy about G.M. food shows ignorance. Ignorance is dangerous. His heart is in the right place how ever his brain is disengaged. He needs to develop an educated heart as do other good people who are naive, ignorant, and trusting the propaganda and lies of unsubstantiated claims of corrupted science. Unfortunately the web is awash with propaganda and educative, informative debate rarely gets a look-in. Being too laid back or lazy we engineer our demise! Be well! joseph.

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October 17, 2009
Votes: -2

Amadeus said:

GMO Dangerous! Genetically modified plants are extremely dangerous and DO NOT provide higher yields. Read about the Indian farmers who commit suicide by drinking their own pesticides after their GMO crops continue to fail while driving them further into debt and dependency. Monsanto's business model is criminal: the genes spread to unwitting farmers' fields, a which point private investigators obtain DNA samples and then sue the poor farmer. It would be like throwing a rock through my window and suing me for my house because you're rock is in it. Also, the idea of patenting LIFE is preposterous. Consumers should avoid GMO food at all costs. These people our playing God with our lives and the planet.

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October 17, 2009
Votes: +1

SPacE-BoY said:

	GMO is good! DO IT!WE WASTE MONEY FEEDING THOSE LITTLE MIDGETS!IM SICK OF SEEINN THOSE COMMERCIALS!
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October 20, 2009
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Mohamed Elyes Kchouk said:

Maître de Conférences GMOs have to be considered as a new product on the market and should have the same 'right' to undergo food, health and environmenatl testing as any other product including chemicals. They should have the same 'right' to handle 'health risks' as any other compound in the air, in water, in food or any other medium in contact with human beings. As far, all testing in hand have never showed any 'displaced behaviour' of GMOs when compared with several drugs, chemicals (including gas oil and polluting gases we face each second), mechanical tools (cars, and mobile phones), etc. For Indian and other cases where GMOs proved to have bad socio-economic consequences, one should blame those who authorized this specific use of GMO not GMOs; because, this technological 'tool' has also to be used with care, not at any cost, and in any situation. People should take this into consideration: 'Risk assessment' including socio-economic assessment, i.e. evaluate if the use of GMOs is better than a traditional crop! As former genetic resources curator, and although GMOs impact on genetic resources is not different from 'displacements' already made by the use of High Yielding Varieties (endemism is displaced by invading species, wild and cultivated), the only true and fair interrogation one could make on the use of GMOs is: their impact on species relationships in the sense of Gene Pools and gene flows between species which has to be monitoring on the long term basis; and still we don't have enough 'generations' to see if GMOs 'interrupt' in a way or another the natural geneflow occurring between species. there is not any logical evidence or any hypthetical evidence that GMOs have a power to interrupt geneflows or to have any impact on these. Finally, the birth of GMOs came from a 'natural' observation (brought to humans by God) that genes could be passed from a species to another through a smart system that a bacteria took as a model to survive!

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October 21, 2009
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Christopher-Peter said:

Label all GM Food Chief Biosafety Negotiator’s visa denied by Canada: Dr Tewolde Egziabher, Chief Biosafety Negotiator for the Africa Group and the Like-Minded Group, was denied a visa, without explanation, by Canada to attend the meeting on the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety http://www.cbd.int/biosafety/ Labeling of bulk exports of genetically modified (GM) food, and liability and redress for damage caused to health and the environment by GM, will be decided in the Montreal meetings. Dr Egziabher represents the interests of developing countries and also consumers. Unlike the United States and Canada (part of the Miami group) he insists on labeling of all bulk GM commodities (e.g. sacks of grain) and that states exporting GM food must be made legally and financially responsible for any harm caused. He insists on: a. Clear labeling on all genetically engineered commodities; b. State liability in cases of damage to the environment and/or human beings arising from products of genetic engineering; c. Entitlement to full compensation in cases of damage to the environment and/or human beings; d. Burden of proof of any product of genetic engineering not being the cause of damage resting on the country exporting that product; e. Venue of litigation and enforcement of judgment being in the country where the damage occurred and not in the country of export." Information compiled and provided by Christopher-Peter: Maingot; without prejudice, malice aforethought, ill will, vexation, or frivolity.

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October 23, 2009
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Flu-Bird said:

	Pagan sacrifics So it looks like hundereds of innocent african kids have been sacfrificed on the alter of enviromentalism to the pagan deity of GAIA whom the eco-wackos worship and pray to
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November 14, 2009
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