Activists Urge Gates Foundation to Shift to Socially and Ecologically Appropriate Practices

(August 30, 2010) — Local activists have been launching a campaign to urge the $33 billion Gates Foundation to cut off communication with agribusiness giant Monsanto and other firms involved in developing bio-engineered crops.

According to the Seattle Times, activists have been trying to document a connection between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Monsanto for two years. Their work received scare attention until an article by the Wall Street Journal, published earlier this month, claimed that Monsanto was among the foundation’s most recent portfolio investments, as backed up by a filing by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that claimed the foundation bought 500,000 shares of the stock between April and June, totaling approximately $27.6 million in value.

National activist organizations have already started writing to the foundation, explaining why they must disassociate themselves from companies involved in developing bio-engineered crops, which they perceive to be a conflict of interest. Dr. Phil Bereano, University of Washington Professor Emeritus and recognized expert on genetic engineering noted in a release that the foundation’s direct investment in Monsanto is problematic on two primary levels. “First, Monsanto has a history of blatant disregard for the interests and well-being of small farmers around the world, as well as an appalling environmental track record,” Bereano stated. “The strong connections to Monsanto cast serious doubt on the Foundation’s heavy funding of agricultural development in Africa and purported goal of alleviating poverty and hunger among small-scale farmers. Second, this investment represents an enormous conflict of interest,” he stated, referring to the foundation’s desire for Monsanto to make a profit while opening up new markets in Africa for the agribusiness giant to monopolize the seed market.

This is not the first time the Gates Foundation’s investment practices have been called into question, exposing contradictions within the socially responsible investing (SRI) world. In January 2007, the Los Angeles Times, “using the most recent data available,” wrote, “a…tally showed that hundreds of Gates Foundation investments — totaling at least $8.7 billion, or 41% of its assets, not including US and foreign government securities — have been in companies that countered the foundation’s charitable goals or socially concerned philosophy.” Following the lengthy article by the LA Times that revealed the Gates Foundation’s investment in companies whose practices run counter to the foundation’s charitable goals, the fund said it would review its holdings.