According to Microsoft founder and billionaire, Bill Gates, "GMO foods are perfectly healthy and the technique has the possibility to reduce starvation and malnutrition when it is reviewed in the right way. I don't stay away from non-GMO foods but it is disappointing that people view it as better." He sees GMOs as a promising tool in a wider array of resources in the fight to reduce world hunger.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is campaigning to “end world hunger” by promoting GMO (genetically modified organism) technology. In recent years, the organization has donated a whopping $15 million to two global campaigns aimed at ending world hunger by promoting the use of GMO technology and has hired 400 “science ambassadors” to influence agricultural policy in 35 countries.
The Alliance for Science was established in 2014 with the aim of depolarizing the GMO debate and ensuring broad access to “agricultural innovation” (a.k.a. GMOs), especially among small farmers in developing nations. In October 2018, Ceres2030 was created to help the United Nations achieve its goal of “zero hunger by 2030.”
Gates isn’t the only one with this stance. Most scientists who study the topic, including those representing the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the European Commission have declared genetically modified foods to be safe. A large 2013 study on GMOs found no "significant hazards directly connected with the use of genetically engineered crops."
The vast majority of foods consumed today have been genetically modified in some way. Agricultural crops have been selectively bred for thousands of years to give us the traits we find desirable, such as fruits with large amounts of sweet, edible flesh or vegetables with smaller seeds.
Many products might not exist without genetically modified ingredients. For example, insulin (a medication that people with type 1 diabetes need to regulate their blood sugar), is made with GMO ingredients -- as are most of the soybeans, corn and cotton on the market.
Companies have submitted over 43,000 products to the Non-GMO Project, an organization that certifies products that don't contain genetically modified ingredients. Today, the sales of such products total over $22 billion annually. Some experts feel that the "GMO" label does a disservice to the products made with genetically modified ingredients, because the genetic modification process is a breeding method, much like other recent technological advances in the field of agriculture.
On the other hand, many studies show that developing local biodiversity is a much better way of feeding the world. In her latest book, Oneness Vs. the 1%, Indian activist and author Vandana Shiva calls Bill Gates a philanthrocapitalist. She describes him as a modern Christopher Columbus (not a compliment) whose mission is to “impose GMOs and digital dictatorship to small farmers across the world”. Gates and other billionaires who pour money into developing countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia are pursuing their own self-interest--and continuing the work of Monsanto, which has been ejected from India and elsewhere through grassroots efforts of activists.
The multinational corporation Monsanto entered many nations illegally with the promise that they would increase farmers’ incomes. Over the past two decades, GMO has been seen to be a failed technology. Monocropping eventually ruins the soil, causing bees and other pollinators to leave and lands to become barren. As a result, farmers have committed suicide in droves.
Shiva argues that Gates is essentially a dictator, there not to help but rather to keep people poor and oppressed. He is actually continuing the work of Monsanto. He’s pushing the failed Green Revolution. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is implicated by Shiva as well for his role in mining data for advertising purposes and interfering with elections internationally.
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