Powerful groups — including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) — insist African farmers should follow the U.S. industrial agriculture model. The organizations have been trying to shape Africa’s food policies for decades, despite proof their intervention is doing more harm than good.
But Africans are pushing back and trying to empower local farmers. “The future of African food systems must be in African hands,” said a representative of the Uganda-based Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA).
A three-part video series “Rich Appetites: How Big Philanthropy Is Shaping the Future of Food in Africa” explains why exporting the U.S. agribusiness model to Africa is a “grave mistake.”
Industrial agriculture causes biodiversity loss, hurts small-scale farmers and causes environmental harm — all while failing to solve hunger, according to AFSA and AGRA Watch, which created the short-film series.
The series exposes how “Big Philanthropy” — namely the Gates Foundation — is destroying farming and food in Africa by seizing control from local interests. It also reveals what the BMGF gains from its so-called philanthropic work in Africa. Together, the BMGF and Rockefeller Foundation in 2006 founded the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
The foundations claimed AGRA would bring about a “Green Revolution” in Africa by increasing the productivity of small farms, thus lifting people out of poverty and alleviating hunger.
AGRA promised this through the use of “improved inputs” including fertilizer and “advanced seeds.” AGRA Watch, founded to respond to and challenge AGRA’s policies, calls BMGF’s efforts “philanthrocapitalism based on biopiracy.”
Although the BMGF and AGRA claim to be “pro-poor” and “pro-environment,” their alignment with transnational corporations such as Monsanto, and foreign policy groups such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), makes their motives suspect, according to AGRA Watch:
“[BMGF] takes advantage of food and global climate crises to promote high-tech, market-based, industrial agriculture and generate profits for corporations even while degrading the environment and disempowering farmers.”
‘Rich Appetites: The Foundation’
The first short film in the “Rich Appetites” series, “The Foundation,” outlines the shifts in U.S. agriculture that have been going on for more than a century:
“Government policies, big infrastructure, and corporations have forced U.S. farmers into a vicious cycle of expensive inputs, low crop prices, and increasing debt.
“Faced with mounting pressures, many [farmers] have been forced to sell their land. Rural landscapes have shifted from a mosaic of small family farms to large-scale industrial operations, many owned by agribusiness companies.”
Agribusiness practices, including the use of pesticides and fertilizers, have harmed the environment and farmworkers, and fallen short of their promised goal of reducing food insecurity and malnutrition, the film claims.
Yet powerful groups exported U.S. farming practices first to Asian and Latin American countries, then to Africa. With the goal of improving and modernizing African agriculture, AGRA encouraged the use of commercial seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and weedkillers, while also encouraging farmers to focus on growing commodity crops such as corn.
But many years and more than $1 billion later, AGRA has failed, according to studies. The film claims that not only have things not improved under AGRA, but also:
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- Productivity gains have remained at the same level as they were pre-AGRA.
- Farmers have taken on debt they can’t pay back.
- Hunger increased by 30% in AGRA’s focus countries.
“This model will not solve hunger, help farmers or address climate change. In fact, it is making these problems worse,” according to the film.
Million Belay, Ph.D., general coordinator of AFSA, said pesticides and weedkillers not only cause health problems among African farmers, they also cause farmers to be “locked in” to a system of dependency on chemical solutions.
So while these farming practices do not help farmers, they do benefit corporations — including the BMGF.
This is “philanthrocapitalism,” claims the film, which furthers the interests of corporations and harms African farmers and communities, all while claiming to advance the humanitarian goal of feeding the world.
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Watch part 1 of “Rich Appetites” here:
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Most “Conservative” News Outlets Are on the Big Tech Teat
Not long ago, conservative media was not beholden to anyone. Today, most sites are stuck on the Big Tech gravy train.
I’ll keep this short. The rise of Pandemic Panic Theater, massive voter fraud, and other “taboo” topics have neutered a majority of conservative news sites. You’ll notice they are very careful about what topics they tackle. Sure, they’ll attack Critical Race Theory, Antifa, and the Biden-Harris regime, but you won’t see them going after George Soros, Bill Gates, the World Economic Forum, or the Deep State, among others.
The reason is simple. They are beholden to Big Tech, and Big Tech doesn’t allow certain topics to be discussed or they’ll cut you off. Far too many conservative news outlets rely on Google, Facebook, and Twitter for the bulk of their traffic. They depend on big checks from Google ads to keep the sites running. I don’t necessarily hold it against them. We all do what we need to do to survive. I just wish more would do like we have, which is to cut out Big Tech altogether.
We don’t get Google checks. We don’t have Facebook or Twitter buttons on our stories. We don’t have a YouTube Channel (banned), an Instagram profile (never made one), or a TikTok (no thanks, CCP). We’re not perfect, but we’re doing everything we can to not owe anything to anyone… other than our readers. We owe YOU the truth. We owe YOU the facts that others won’t reveal about topics that others won’t tackle. And we owe America, this great land that allows us to take hold of these opportunities.
Like I said, I don’t hold other conservative sites under too much scrutiny over their choices. It’s easy for people to point fingers when we’re not the ones paying their bills or supporting their families. I just wish there were more who would make the bold move. Today, only a handful of other major conservative news outlets have broken free from the Big Tech teat. Of course, we need help.
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We know we could make a lot more money if we sold out like so many “conservative” publications out there. You won’t find Google ads on our site for a reason. Yes, they’re lucrative, but I don’t like getting paid by minions of Satan (I don’t like Google very much if you couldn’t tell).
Time is short. As the world spirals towards The Great Reset, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report and the other sites in the network going. Our promise is this: We will never sell out America. If that means we’re going to struggle for a while or even indefinitely, so be it. Integrity first. Truth first. America first.
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