Jan 8, 2020 08:35 AM
(This post was last modified: Jan 8, 2020 08:43 AM by C C.)
https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2020/...te-africa/
INTRO: Picture an environment where drought has ravaged the landscape, slashing crop yields and fuelling poverty in the process. This treacherous environment is home to millions of farmers who are dependent on their lands for literally everything and struggling to survive. This isn’t a hypothetical world; this is Africa in 2019. The continent’s population is projected to skyrocket to 1.7 billion by the year 2030 and more than 4 billion by the end of the century. The continent will have the youngest population in the world by 2100 because of this exponential growth.
Given these staggering numbers, it would be ridiculous to claim that Western billionaires have been attempting to starve Africa for decades by taking control of its food supply. Nonetheless, this conspiracy theory began to gain traction with activists on the fringes of society in the mid-2000s. According to several popular accounts, the Gates and Rockefeller Foundations are “depopulating” Africa by duping farmers into growing GMO seeds patented by biotech companies like Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) and Syngenta.
How do they know this? In 2010, the Gates Foundation was a major investor in Monsanto. Alongside Bayer and Syngenta, both philanthropies also financed the establishment of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault project in Norway, meant to preserve the world’s plant biodiversity. Through these projects, Gates, Rockefeller and “big agribusiness” are laying the groundwork for a eugenic plot to build “a master race.”
Like most conspiracies, this outlandish story starts with innocuous facts but quickly goes off the rails as its claims grow more grandiose. What’s more, different iterations of this tall tale are still embraced by many prominent anti-GMO groups today and continue to hinder Africa’s development, helping to preserve hunger and poverty on the continent.
The most outlandish version of events, advanced by freelance writer and conspiracy theorist F. William Engdahl, starts with... (MORE - details)
INTRO: Picture an environment where drought has ravaged the landscape, slashing crop yields and fuelling poverty in the process. This treacherous environment is home to millions of farmers who are dependent on their lands for literally everything and struggling to survive. This isn’t a hypothetical world; this is Africa in 2019. The continent’s population is projected to skyrocket to 1.7 billion by the year 2030 and more than 4 billion by the end of the century. The continent will have the youngest population in the world by 2100 because of this exponential growth.
Given these staggering numbers, it would be ridiculous to claim that Western billionaires have been attempting to starve Africa for decades by taking control of its food supply. Nonetheless, this conspiracy theory began to gain traction with activists on the fringes of society in the mid-2000s. According to several popular accounts, the Gates and Rockefeller Foundations are “depopulating” Africa by duping farmers into growing GMO seeds patented by biotech companies like Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) and Syngenta.
How do they know this? In 2010, the Gates Foundation was a major investor in Monsanto. Alongside Bayer and Syngenta, both philanthropies also financed the establishment of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault project in Norway, meant to preserve the world’s plant biodiversity. Through these projects, Gates, Rockefeller and “big agribusiness” are laying the groundwork for a eugenic plot to build “a master race.”
Like most conspiracies, this outlandish story starts with innocuous facts but quickly goes off the rails as its claims grow more grandiose. What’s more, different iterations of this tall tale are still embraced by many prominent anti-GMO groups today and continue to hinder Africa’s development, helping to preserve hunger and poverty on the continent.
The most outlandish version of events, advanced by freelance writer and conspiracy theorist F. William Engdahl, starts with... (MORE - details)
