Why AGRA Watch?
AGRA Watch has spent the past two years challenging the Gates Foundation’s plans for imposing an unjust and unsustainable model of agriculture on countries in Africa. Both in their direct grants to GMO agricultural research, and through their participation in the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) they are paving the way for the widespread use of GMOs in African nations where they are heartily contested. We criticize the Foundation’s strong connections to Monsanto—from their staff and board member choices, the projects they fund in Africa, to the solutions they envision. The dumping of toxic seeds on Haiti, is only the latest in a long line of acts that Monsanto has done to push unsustainable “solutions” on farmers around the world. If the Gates Foundation wants to support a sustainable agriculture system in Africa or elsewhere, they must divorce themselves from Monsanto.
