r/technology • u/lurker_bee • 23h ago

Biotechnology Burkina Faso says no to Bill Gates’ plan of creating modified species of mosquitoes

https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/lifestyle/burkina-faso-says-no-to-bill-gates-plan-of-creating-modified-species-of-mosquitoes/xyk7xm8
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u/nonhiphipster 22h ago

Because “The West” shouldn’t be confused with literially everyone in the western hemisphere of the planet

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u/coolcosmos 22h ago

Bill Gates isn't anybody.

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u/Prior_Coyote_4376 21h ago

People need to stop thinking they are ever going to get the individual property rights and influence billionaires command. They’re lawnmowers.

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u/Logical-Breakfast966 15h ago

Ya Bill Gates has proven over and over to be trustworthy and have these peoples best interests at heart. It’s reactionary to turn away this program and it shouldn’t be excused

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u/Gunhild 14h ago

Bill Gates was on the flight logs.

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u/ikiice 14h ago

Bill gates destroyed patent free covid vaccine project, leading to destruction what was supposed to be catalyst for biotech development in Africa - and as a result covid vaccines are much more expensive in Africa than in west

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u/AnEmptyBoat27 21h ago

Western oligarchs using their unmatched wealth to influence other governments for the benefit of capitalists has nothing to do with western capitalism

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u/Moifaso 16h ago

Enlighten me on how Bill Gates influenced Burkina Faso through this aid program

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u/sorry-not-tory 20h ago

… are pretending that eastern oligarchs are any different?

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u/AnEmptyBoat27 20h ago

No. If I say cancer is bad, it doesn’t mean I’m saying aids is fine

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u/Dapperrevolutionary 20h ago

Like eastern oligarchs are any different

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u/Logical-Breakfast966 15h ago

Bill Gates has saved millions of lives through his foundation. This program would have saved millions more if successful. Just because you hate billionaires doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be fighting malaria

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u/[deleted] 15h ago

[deleted]

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u/Logical-Breakfast966 15h ago

That’s literally what he was doing

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u/rewind2482 14h ago

what do you think Bill Gates stands to gain from influencing Burkina Faso

This is insanity

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u/AnEmptyBoat27 12h ago

The same thing USAID or the belt and road project were/are doing. Gaining soft power. Burkina Faso has ample natural resources and global supply chains are likely to see disruption in the near future. Having supplemental connections to natural resources could be hugely influential particularly with an unstable regime. Political in roads could help install a more favorable government in Gates’ interest.

I would be equally skeptical of Jack Ma spending billions on “charity” near uranium deposits.

I don’t believe it’s insane to think that the richest people on earth may make decisions based on their financial interests rather than the good of people in the third world.

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u/rewind2482 11h ago

What is Gates’ interest, exactly?

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u/AnEmptyBoat27 9h ago

Money and power

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u/Quasar375 6h ago

Oh, so the millionaire wants more influence and he is willing to do it by giving vaccines and investing in the local population. But it is better to just die from malaria I guess. With Malaria you just die, while accepting help from Gates makes you feel bad for participating in capitalism, right?

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u/BrazilianTerror 22h ago

Bill Gates pushed african countries to literally prohibit trading seeds with neighbors so that people are forces to buy from monsanto, etc. and guess who owns a lot of shares of monsanto?

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u/shish-kebab 21h ago

Sources?

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u/evildeliverance 21h ago

A quick google search shows they are not entirely making it up, just manipulatively framing it in the worst possible light. AGRA is pushing for regulation that favors the use of modern high yield seeds. The idea is that more food per acre of crop means less starving kids.

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u/ahundreddollarbills 21h ago edited 20h ago

OP just making shit up, connected shit together to make a stupid story.

As far as I can tell, The foundation is just pushing for more GM seeds and industrialization of farming. Both of which many people do not like but the foundation sees it as a way to feed more people.

At the same time that this is happening, many actors in Mali are working to strengthen industrial seed systems, in particular by encouraging laws that allow greater participation of private companies in various aspects of seed production and commercialisation. These efforts are supported by programmes such as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, which is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

and

in 2012 the Tanzanian government passed a Plant Breeders’ Rights Act. The Act goes beyond the requirement of UPOV ’91. If farmers use and exchange so-called protected seeds without the authorisation of the breeder, they face punishment under criminal rather than civil law. This means that on top of paying fines, they may be liable to imprisonment. Since the law applies to industrial rather than peasant seeds, the Tanzanian government is telling farmers not to worry, as the law does not concern them.

source

I don't know how or if those two are connected to the gates foundation, but that won't stop some story taking hold about how Bill Gates is poisoning our food.

As for the Monsanto shares, the only info I could find was a purchase of 500,000 shares back in 2010. 500,000 shares is a lot for the common person, but in this case it was only 23m, adjusting for todays stock price it would still be worth only about 67m A drop in the bucket compared to the 77 billion dollar endowment the foundation has. The foundation has 10x more money in Walmart (about 700m) but no one is trying to spin a story that he is responsible for walmart's price increases.

source

TL;DR

Gates is pushing for more GM seeds and industrial farming, locals upset and GMO critics worked up too.

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u/Immediate_Map235 21h ago

do you know how to use google?

edit: wow look i googled 'bill gates monsanto' for you and the algorithm put together all the sources you could want

https://www.google.com/search?q=bill+gates+Monsanto&oq=bill+gates+Monsanto+&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160l5.3004j0j7&client=ms-android-samsung-gs-rev1&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

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u/2_Cranez 21h ago

Your google search doesn't back what you're saying at all. Feel free to link an actual source, but none of the top results on Google back you up.

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u/Immediate_Map235 21h ago

the google AI summary contains links to every source. You seem to just be talking out your ass because your bias causes you to disagree. I am correct tho

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u/2_Cranez 21h ago

I read the AI summary. It doesn't say that. Not only are you too lazy to find a source you are too lazy to even use AI to find a source.

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u/Immediate_Map235 21h ago

what does it say then?

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u/2_Cranez 21h ago

It says he invested in Monsanto to help develop GMO crops for the developing world. Nothing about him lobbying to ban farmers from reusing seeds.

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u/eggnogui 21h ago

Uses AI and claims victory

Thank you for letting me know you aren't worth having serious conversations with.

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u/Schmackter 21h ago

Did you read the thing you posted?

It literally explains that it was for altruistic / non-nefarious reasons. It's fine to take issue with supporting Monsanto, or the plan / methods but it still supports the argument that Bill Gates was engaging in philanthropy to help the food insecure.

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u/Immediate_Map235 21h ago

Source?

the link I posted on my end says:

"Motivation: The foundation sought to support the proliferation of Monsanto's genetically engineered crops in the developing world, with goals to increase yields and reduce food insecurity.

Criticism:

This investment drew heavy criticism for a variety of reasons:

Support for GM Crops: Critics argued the foundation was supporting GM crops and technologies that have faced significant opposition and demonstrated limited success in some contexts.

Farmer Rights: The investment was seen as a backing of Monsanto's controversial history of prosecuting farmers for saving seeds, which negatively impacted small farmers.

Ecological Concerns: Activists and critics like Vandana Shiva accused Gates of promoting a failed approach to agriculture, similar to the original Green Revolution, that relies on chemical inputs and patents, rather than ecological and sustainable farming methods.

"Philanthropic Capitalism": Shiva characterized Gates' approach as a harmful and self-serving agenda, "philanthropic capitalism," that serves to create new forms of ownership and control over seeds and agricultural systems."

the first goal was increasing yields, not reducing insecurity, and that is the stated goal. The following 4 paragraphs explain the flaws and critiques leveled at this goal and why it is largely rejected by members of the nation states targeted.

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u/CardOk755 21h ago

This is LLM output. Produce something written by someone or something that can think.

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u/Immediate_Map235 21h ago

You are a person who can think refusing to do your own research and when provided an easy solution tailor-made for people who can't do their own work, criticizing the guy who made it easy for you. okay!

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u/CardOk755 21h ago

I already did my research. I know Burkinabè people, both in country and out of it. I know of Burkinabè who have been murdered by Traoré 's junta.

I don't need LLM "summaries" because I know that they are not summaries, merely strings of text that superficially resemble the data they've been fed.

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u/WestEndOtter 21h ago

Monsanto sell various seeds. It is more like "would you like to buy standard seeds which you can trade or double sized seeds which you agree to not trade?" Most farmers prefer the latter

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u/venom21685 21h ago

It's not a new thing either. Even without patent protection for GM seeds, many hybrid varieties are undesirable to save the seed because the hybrid traits are not stable from generation to generation. So even if you plant super duper seeds the plants grow and reproduce seeds that aren't quite as super duper.

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u/WestEndOtter 20h ago

People also don't factor on that they probably spend about $2 billion on research for a new trait, so they can either charge the first farmer $2.2 billion to share as much as he wants, or they can charge each farmer $10k/year and make them promise not to share and know they will only break even after 3 years and start profiting from year 4

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u/BrazilianTerror 19h ago

Not true. It’s literally illegal to trade seeds with the neighbors, even normal ones.

https://youtu.be/KO3-xkVACgE?si=mi_g9ZkfF1j4x-cb

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u/WestEndOtter 19h ago

It is legal to trade seeds. Only specific seeds are protected by patents(where you sign an agreement when buying explaining the requirements when buying).

I have literally sat in meetings with monsanto legal team discussing this topic, what is and isn't allowed.

Have you previously signed a monsanto BT gene agreement?

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u/BrazilianTerror 18h ago

Did you even watch the video?

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u/WestEndOtter 17h ago

That is a very simplified video. I have worked with several companies in that video.

How should seed research companies react when 95% of farmers are demanding the best monsanto varieties and as a non gmo supplier you cannot supply them? Do you close up your business?

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u/[deleted] 22h ago edited 13h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Gloomy-Ad1171 21h ago

Trump fucks kids

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u/m3thodm4n021 21h ago

You're as dumb as the maga folks if you actually believe that. But Alex Jones agrees with you if that makes you feel better

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u/5Hjsdnujhdfu8nubi 21h ago

If the "absolute worst parts of western capitalism and exploitation" is spending billions upon billions to get rid of diseases like malaria, HIV and neglected tropical diseases then the world would be a utopia.

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u/THE_IRL_JESUS 21h ago

The absolute worst?

At least he gives vast amounts to charity, surely someone like Musk would be worse.

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u/Soft-Butterfly7532 21h ago

He gives away what he exploited from workers to charity? Yeah, really generous.

It should never have been his in the first place. That's the point.

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u/haarschmuck 21h ago

Bill Gates was an asshole during his time at Msoft but using that to take away the good he has done with his foundation is insane.

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u/Ok-Self5588 20h ago

Bill gates is an arm of America, the worst offender. Not trusting him is the wisest thing any country can do

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u/DynamicNostalgia 22h ago

“Racism is okay when it’s against white people.”

  • Reddit

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u/legshampoo 21h ago

ok ‘western oligarchs and capitalists’